Doing Her Part With Art

Fourteen-year-old Moira Landry will represent Swampscott on Gov. Deval Patrick's statewide public-service project for youth, Project 351.

Moira will join other young people on Jan. 8, performing community service and partnering with nonprofits in the Boston area.

Moira has been volunteering since she was 9 and helped out at Cradles to Crayons, a program that gives backpacks filled with school supplies to homeless children.

Moira loves art, especially drawing.

 In 2009 she founded the organization Hope for Creativity, which gives art supplies to homeless kids.

On Tuesday, she and her mother delivered 34 packs of art supplies to the North Shore Community Action Program in Peabody. The supplies will, in turn, be distributed to kids without homes.

Hope for Creativity has distributed 304 packs since it started.

She hopes the kids who receive the art supplies -- pencils, paint, paper and such -- use them to reduce stress.

Ultimately, the art supplies gift is a gesture, she said.

"My main focus is to show them that someone cares about them and that they are not alone," Moira said.