Submitted Photo The Green Eggs Foundation recently received a $400 donation from Greenfield Cabinetry. Greenfield Cabinetry employees recently met with Green Eggs Foundation executive director Lisa Parrish to present her with a check. Those taking part in the presentation include, from left, Joe Binns, Courtney Zirkle, Jerry Thorne, Parrish, Shawn Thompson, and Austin Parsons.

ELKINS – The Green Eggs Foundation will host a handful of workshops and programs this summer for area children that are centered around arts and music.

The organization, which was launched in April of 2025, aims to inspire creativity and ignite a lifelong love for the arts in school-age children. Green Eggs executive director Lisa Parrish said the foundation was created after area schools began to lose funding for their music and arts programs.

“We were created 100 percent because we saw the cuts coming,” Parrish said. “We know how important the arts and music are to area youth. That’s their outlet, that’s where they feel connected, and that’s where they are just not a number or a test score. That’s how they get their individuality and their confidence. So once we got word that programs were being cut or teachers were being removed, we knew we had to step in and do something.”

The non-profit organization, which was created in honor of Parrish’s late husband and local musician Sam, recently received a $400 donation from Greenfield Cabinetry which went to the purchase of items for this summer’s workshops.

The first workshop Parrish spoke about was one that is centered around music and arts for local home-schooled students.

“We have some home-schoolers from here in Randolph and some from Pocahontas County who we are going to start meeting with in June,” Parrish said. “We are going to be creating some art projects and doing some music with those children.”

Parrish said that the Green Eggs Foundation has also partnered with a pair of area schools, the Montessori Early Learning Center and the Eyes and Brains Stem Center, for two of their summer workshops.

“We are going to be bringing some music to both of those schools this summer,” Parrish said. “With Greenfield’s donation to us, we were able to purchase some early learning and percussion instruments. So the students we work with this summer at both of those schools will be able to learn the basics of how to read a rhythm. We also purchased these instruments called boomwhackers and the kids will be able to learn how to read music and have fun with those.”

Parrish said some of the art students work on this summer will be put on display at downtown Elkins businesses.

“The home-schoolers are the first ones we are going to be doing arts with,” Parrish said. “We have Lydia Cupp, who was Miss Elkins Area Teen, coming in and she will be reading a children’s book to the kids. We are going to have an arts project specifically geared toward that book, which the kids will create. We are going to try and have them displayed at local businesses, either with two of our standing supporters, Hair Graphics or Byrd’s House of Donuts, or somebody else. That way people in the community can actually see what these kids are creating and what we are trying to do.”

Parrish said that in addition to the summer workshops, the Green Eggs Foundation is currently preparing to launch its first-ever program for area children.

“We are getting ready to roll out our very first actual program and it’s going to be for podcasting,” Parrish said. “We are going to bring in a group of kids and we have a mentor coming in to teach the kids how to work the podcasting equipment and create content. The goal is for the kids to be able to create their own content, know how to edit it, and film it. We will then push out a monthly podcast that is 100 percent kid driven. So these kids will create the content, do the work and put it out for the public to see it.”

Parrish said that the Green Eggs Foundation is currently looking to secure sponsorship for the podcasting program because some equipment is still needed to get the program rolling.

The Green Eggs Foundation will have an information table set up at the Tacos, Tats & Taps Festival in downtown Elkins on June 6 where children can stop by and create their own musical instruments. The foundation will then host the second annual Elkins Fright Night on Oct. 17.

For more information on the Green Eggs Foundation, visit the organization Facebook page or email contact@greeneggsfund.org. All donations made to the organization go directly toward the foundation’s programs and workshops.