Ursula Minor, of Lawrence, stays busy with presiding over the local NAACP chapter, sitting on the Lawrence Public Library board and heavy involvement in the Lawrence arts scene.

Later in January, Lawrence resident Ursula Minor will once again set up a crafts booth for students at an after-hours educational game night at Woodlawn Elementary, as she’s done for nearly 10 years.

Minor did not attend the school, and neither did her two adult children. Minor doesn’t even live in the same part of town. But the modest, annual visit made to Woodlawn (and Pinckney Elementary — she does the same thing there) is a favorite activity for Minor, who stays busy with presiding over the local NAACP chapter, sitting on the Lawrence Public Library board and heavy involvement in the Lawrence arts scene.

“I just love the people and I just love getting out there and just doing stuff,” said Minor, 55, on being active in the community. “It never ends, but I enjoy it.”

Minor is a native Lawrencian and works as an assembler at the technology manufacturer Honeywell, where her husband, James, is a customer quality engineer. Her love of art was stoked as a Girl Scout, when she was always working with crafts. Today, she collects materials as if she were the “other Hobby Lobby.”

“I pick up beads and stuff everywhere,” she said.

Much of Minor’s artwork involves a months-long process of decorating dummy heads and other objects with a vibrant collage of beads and other small items covering every inch.

Minor is a member of the Lawrence Art Guild and Lawrence Creates Makerspace, and her work has appeared in Final Friday displays. Other pieces of her artwork — she used to be big into homemade dollhouses — have been donated to auction fundraisers for organizations such as Douglas County Casa and the Douglas County Aids Project, she said. One of them fetched about $300.

Minor said she inherited her proactive, community-driven energy from her parents, who raised seven children, worked and still found the time to volunteer. “Always doing something,” she said.

But it’s also her enthusiasm for art that pushed her into different aspects of the community. She first began associating with the NAACP about 15 years ago, doing things like making flyers or table centerpieces. And it was at an NAACP event in a park, with a craft station set up for kids, where attendees began asking if she’d do the same in other settings, like schools and the Boys and Girls Club.

“She’s an artist at heart and so she really encourages the students to use their creativity to come up with something they will enjoy taking home with them,” said Jeanne Fridell, Woodlawn’s principal. “It’s usually one of the more popular stations” at the game night.

Minor says her initial involvement with the NAACP didn’t involve the ambition of becoming its president, but she was elected to the top job in 2010. Among other projects there, she said, she helped turn its scholarship program into a consistently annual thing, awarding $250 or $500 grants to four Lawrence public high school students, up from one.

The energy has transferred to the rest of her family, too. Minor’s daughter, a graphic designer, usually comes along for the crafts stand at Woodlawn and Pinckney. Minor credits her son with ideas for the beaded heads. Her husband James, a member of Lawrence’s Community Development Advisory Board and an NAACP volunteer, says he’d be less active if it weren’t for her.

“I think it’s fascinating seeing her be able to do the things (she does),” he said.

With the end of her library board term approaching, Minor said she has a short list of other committees she’d like to join if she does not return. She has no plans to hit the brakes.

“I have a hard time saying no,” she said. “Sometimes I have to, and it just kills me. I just like to help people and do different things.”