Our Peace Fund Radio Hero of the Week is Alyssa Deraco, a 14-year-old 9th grader from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. 

Alyssa has always been an avid reader. When she was only 10 years old, she began to wonder how she could turn her love for books into a way to help children who were less fortunate.  

During this time, she created a successful project for her Girl Scout Bronze Award. For the project, Alyssa collected books for children at local shelters. The response was so great that the entire family got involved. Now, the organization gives away between 500 and 900 packages each year containing several books, a pair of pajamas, and a toothbrush.

With this success as an idea, Alyssa created her own charity called Alyssa's Bedtime Stories. She began by collecting books to donate to Milagro House, a shelter for homeless moms and children in Lancaster.  The collecting began with used books and grew to new ones. Then it grew to pajamas, and it just kept growing and growing to different countries, like Panama and Guatemala. It's still growing.

Since 2009, they have donated over 10,000 books and 5,000 pairs of pajamas to children who come from abusive homes, don't have homes of their own, or can't afford to discover the magic of reading on their own.  

We're very honored to have Alyssa on the show with us today.