Tae Tae got an idea last year after her school cut art supplies from the budget. She worried that kids who could not afford their own supplies would be left out. So she traded the brush for a pen and started writing letters to big companies asking for help. She wrote 50 letters in all, and heard back from 45.

Donations flooded in from some of the biggest art and office supply companies in the country. She collected more then $32,000 in supplies and started her own nonprofit called "The Traveling Canvas," to bring art supplies to homeless kids.

She recently went to the White House and received the President's Volunteer Service Award.

(WATCH the video or read the story from CBS Evening News)