When Natalie Zuniga's ('17) birthday came up last October, she didn't want gifts for herself.

Instead, she asked her friends and family for children's books she could donate to charity. But she couldn't find the right place to donate them to.

"I was really hungry to see the impact of dropping these books off," she says. "I thought, 'You know what, let me start a nonprofit.' And I did."

A few months later, Auntie's Book Bank began distributing books to students in Title I elementary schools in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Zuniga has worked tirelessly with book-related organizations to raise money and encourage volunteers to participate.

"What has helped is that when I talk about it, people can tell that it's a personal project," she says.

Connecting to Words

Books have played an important part in her life -- although it wasn't always easy.

The daughter of immigrants, Zuniga spoke only Spanish as a child, and her parents couldn't find many books in Spanish for her to read.

Her family knew she would have to learn English when she attended school. When she got bored, her dad got out a dictionary and encouraged her to copy words from it.

In kindergarten, her class watched a movie and had to write a few sentences in English summarizing it. Not knowing the language, she looked at a neighbor's paper and wrote the same thing they did. She ended up in time-out.

By third grade, she had learned English -- and to love books. As an aunt at age 17, she would read to her niece and was fascinated at how quickly she would learn. Book shopping became a big part of their relationship and continued with all her four nieces.

"It felt like a way to connect with them," she says.

Investing in Community

In fact, the name for Auntie's Book Bank comes from her love of being an aunt. Zuniga filed the paperwork for the nonprofit by the time her birthday came around. She organized book drives with apartment complexes and worked with the Dallas chapter of the Silent Book Club, which made donations at their December meeting.

She also attended the Dallas-based Get Lit: Grown-Up Book Fair, which snagged enthusiastic attention from visitors. She met one reader who joined her board of directors. The event organizer and local author, Rachel Lewis, has welcomed Auntie's Book Bank back for multiple events.

"I can't take the credit," Zuniga says. "It really is the community and how much people care that makes this possible. There was an unmet need of people like me who want to give back and invest in their community."

Auntie's Book Bank also enables Zuniga, who served four years in the Air Force before she came to UNT, to use her business analytics degree. 

"With my experiences in the last eight years of working for two large corporations, I'm able to combine everything I've learned in my career and at UNT," says Zuniga, who handles her duties at Auntie's Book Bank while maintaining a full-time job. "It's helped me start this off very quickly. I would start planning certain things like fundraisers and campaigns, and think, 'Oh, wow! I'm actually applying principles from a certain class or project I've worked on.' It requires that kind of thinking and strategy."

Happy Faces

Auntie's Book Bank has donated over 1,400 books so far.

Zuniga attends most donation events -- including one at the school she attended, Barton Elementary in Irving.

"And the looks on their faces are just so heartwarming. They're so happy. I told them they're going to go walk over by the tables, pick out two books and take them home. And a little boy says, 'I don't have to bring it back?' I told him, 'No, they'll be yours. They're for you.' And he told me he doesn't have any books at home, and that broke my heart. But I just had to keep it positive. I always tell the kids, 'I hope you find some books that you'll really enjoy.'"

Just like she wanted when she came up with the idea, Zuniga gets to see the direct impact of donating books.

"Doing this has helped heal a part of me I didn't realize needed healing," she says. "I think of the little Natalie who could only afford a pencil and eraser at the Scholastic Book Fair. Fortunately, now I have the opportunity to buy all the books I want. But I think giving back to my community helps me just as much as it helps the children and families we're serving."