Mark and Teresa Neil established this endowment in 2021, to support reading programs that promote elementary reading and also support performing arts education in K-12.. Half of the distribution is to be used to support reading programs that promote elementary reading and half to support performing arts education in K-12 schools. Native West Virginians, Mark and Teresa long called Beckley their home. Although they now reside along a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia enjoying retirement, they wanted to find a way to further important parts of the public education of young people in Raleigh County through school-based initiatives. Both possess a long love of reading and expressed their hope that by supporting reading programs for children, that they, too, would find the magic and wonderment of written words which open the doors of knowledge and entertainment for a lifetime.