Power of Children: Amber Kriech

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - A Carmel teenager is passing along her passion for reading. Power of Children winner Amber Kriech, a freshman at Carmel High School is in band, Key Club, Girl Scouts and 4-H but at the top is her love of books.

"I love reading and I was in the 100 book club during elementary school," explains Kriech.

Last year during a visit to the East Tenth United Methodist Children and Youth Center on the east side of Indianapolis, Amber was trying to find out how she can help the facility that serves low income families.

Amber immediately saw the need for a new library. Jean Casmir Hill, nominated Amber for the award.

She told 24-hour News 8, "Amber has not only done just above and beyond what we imagined but then has still remained part of the center and continues to help us even once the project is over."

Amber worked on the project to turn an old room filled with leaks and odds and ends into a haven for young people to escape through the power of reading. In the process, Amber found added inspiration after learning her biological mother who passed away when Amber was 18 months, taught at a nearby school.

"It's great especially when I found out that IPS 15 which is where my birth mother used to work. Their school was actually helped with reading skills so that just kind of hit me big that this was an awesome thing," said Kriech.

Every nook and cranny of the room was done with thought. Amber organized and labeled thousands of books the center had sitting in boxes. She purchased more books through Goodwill and even donated some of her own favorite reads.

She turned to Lowe's for guidance in building shelves, looked online for supplies and did the hard labor herself.

"When I like did my project and got all my totals it was like $305 and if I bought everything new it would have been over $3,000."

Amber recruited friends and family to help make her dream a reality which hundreds of kids will enjoy for years to come.

"It just truly shows how one person can make a difference," said Hill.