When Moira was nine years old visiting New York City she saw her first homeless person and realized she wanted to help her. When she got back home she gathered friends together and started a club to raise money and awareness for the homeless. In doing so she learned about the experience that homeless children go through: loneliness, sometimes having to give up everything and a lot of times not knowing where they were going to sleep and couldn’t help but want to do something for them.

On Moira’s 12th birthday party she had friends join together to spend the day volunteering at Cradles to Crayons.  Her guests spent the day packing orders of essentials for needy children in the warehouse.

“Volunteerism isn’t just a phase for me, it is a big part of my life. I want service to the community to be something that kids are not made to do to fulfill a requirement or get credits for a class, but I want I want them to see the value of volunteering and the all of the positive aspects of helping someone, not the burden of having to do it.”

She wanted to do something more than just a club after school and founded Hope for Creativity. Hope for Creativity is a non-profit organization that provides art supplies to homeless children and empowers kids to make difference.  An art pack may not make everything better in homeless children’s’ lives or fix the problem of homelessness, but it shows that people care about what they’re going through. Her dream is to provide homeless children art packs, to keep raising awareness and to keep reaching out, until someday every single kid in this country is safe and is happy.

“It is a lot to be fourteen and have so many responsibilities, but the impact it has had on my life is amazing…it has truly made me believe that anything is possible.”