In 2008 Shannon McNamara founded SHARE, Shannon’s After-school Reading Exchange, a non-profit organization whose original mission was to collect books to help educate girls in Tanzania. McNamara, a senior at Ridge High School in Basking Ridge, N.J., has won top recognition for her successful organization (she was asked to give a speech at the White House in March), which has shipped more than 23,000 books to Africa, opened libraries and started SHARE Scholars — a scholarship to help young Tanzanian girls continue their education beyond elementary school. McNamara traveled to Tanzania with her family in the summers of 2009 and 2010. Another trip is planned in 2011.
