My Story: Moira Landry, Founder and President of HFC, age 12

When I was nine years old, my mom took me to New York for a weekend trip during February. We were walking down a busy street and a woman came up to my mom and asked her to spare a dollar so she could buy a lunch. I noticed that she had a big bag with her, and she looked very tired. After she left with the dollar, I asked my mom why she had that big bag. My mom explained to me that the woman was probably homeless, so she kept all of her things in the bag to carry with her. After hearing this explanation, I felt very upset, and I immediately knew that I wanted to help people like her. So, when we got back home, I called all of my friends and asked them if they wanted to start a club that helped homeless people.

Thinking about it now, it was kind of funny how earnest I was after just seeing one homeless person in New York. Not funny in a bad way, but I didn’t know that a nine year old could be that determined. Well, I was, and look at where I am now…

As for my club, it was called Helping Homeless Now (HHN) and we only got as far as having a craft sale to raise money for Cradles to Crayons, and then most of other members of the club slowly melted away, leaving me and my future. Although my family has always been by my side, for my friends at the time it seemed to be a fad, or an impulse. For me, it turned into the rest of my life. Now, three years after the birth and death of HHN, I’ve volunteered countless hours (probably close to 1000 over the past couple of years) at different agencies that help the homeless, had clothing and toy drives for homeless and underprivileged children, sacrificed my twelfth birthday party to help make people more about homelessness and volunteering, won 4 awards and gone to Washington for my efforts in making a difference.  All of these experiences have been amazing, but for me this is just the beginning. 

When most people hear about my story, their reaction is usually “Wait, you did that? But, why??” oh, and my favorite: “But…you’re TWELVE!?”

 Yes, I am “TWELVE” and NOW here I am starting my own non-profit organization, ready to take on anything and still hoping to change people’s lives as I have since I was nine.  I have decided to, at this time, focus specifically on homeless children in the state of Massachusetts because I when I made my first visit to a homeless shelter to learn more about them with HHN, I became highly upset by the fact that they did not allow kids to stay in their shelter, but if someone had a child they would try to find another shelter for the family to stay in. Imagine, being four or five, and possibly being one of the reasons that your family might not have a place to sleep at night, all because the shelter won’t accept kids.

My art pack may not make everything better in their lives or fix everything that’s wrong, but I  want homeless kids in my state
to know that there is someone out there their own age that cares about what they’re going through.

What I also aim to do, besides the art packs, is to open people eyes to the problem of homelessness and to try to help them understand what I’ve focused my life on for three years and continue to do so.  I also want to educate other kids about homelessness and volunteerism and how important it is to make volunteering a part of your life.

My dream is to keep raising awareness and reaching out, until someday every single kid in this country has a home, and is happy. I know it is a big dream and may seem unreachable, but something that I’ve realized through my experiences is, that if I believe in something, I can do it, just like when I was nine.