Veronica Pugin is racing to raise money for books. She doesn't need the money. She doesn't need the books.

But that's precisely why she thought it was important to run in the 28th annual Mercury News Run on April 10. Pugin finished the 5K version of the race in 26 minutes, 29 seconds, which put her in 152nd place out of more than 1,800 runners.

The money she raised--$240 worth of pledges--will help fund a children's library at Grail Family Services on San Jose's East side.

"In East San Jose they don't have a library that's close enough for them. Most people who live there don't have cars and they walk everywhere," Veronica says.

The 15-year-old Harker School student says she believes she lives in an affluent area and says she recognizes that other parts of the city don't have the same advantages that she and her neighbors enjoy. It is that insight that motivates her.

"Here in Almaden, we're getting this huge library, and that's a really good thing, but the people in East San Jose don't have anything," she says.

Grail Family Services is one of five organizations benefiting from the Mercury News' Cause to Run, which allows race participants to collect pledges on behalf of a nonprofit organization.

When Veronica learned that Grail Family Services was one of those organizations that would benefit, she decided to run.

"It's my responsibility. I have so many privileges that I need to do whatever I can to help others," Veronica says.

Grail Family Services is an organization close to her heart. She has volunteered there for the last two summers teaching adults computer skills and helping young children learn to read and write English.

Katie Stokes-Guinan, director of programs and quality control says that Spanish is the first language of most of the students in the adult computer class taught by Veronica. Stokes-Guinan adds that most of the students are women who had never even turned on a computer.

"Some of the adults in the class are almost afraid of computers," Stokes-Guinan says. "Veronica did a great job with them."

Veronica learned Spanish from her Chilean mom, Veronica Goei, who is the executive director of Grail Family Services. When Veronica Pugin first started at the library, she was assisting a teacher who ended up not being able to continue, so the Almaden teenager took over.

"I was only 13 and I didn't think they would respect me, but they'd call me over and ask me questions. I didn't think adults would want to listen to a little teenager," she says.

Veronica says she didn't think she would have as much fun teaching but she "really connected" with the students, both the adults in her computer class and the children she was helping to learn to read and write.

The expansion of the library at the center is expected to be complete in July, says Stokes-Guinan, and the money raised by Veronica and others in the Cause to Run will help to catalog 7,000 books for children up to 9 years old.

Veronica's involvement and commitment is infectious, as she has enlisted the help of 20 to 30 other Harker students to volunteer at Grail Family Services, but Veronica doesn't see her work at the center or her participation in the run as a charitable act; she sees it as her obligation.

"I learned so much from them. If anything I need to run to pay them back for all I've learned," Veronica says. "I view the world differently. There is more out there than my Almaden Valley."

Do you know of an Almaden resident whose volunteerism should be recognized in a Neighbors Helping Neighbors feature? Email a nomination to the Almaden Resident is at almadenresident@community-newspapers.com.