Local “Green Eggs and Ham” event turns 20

Local “Green Eggs and Ham” events, organized by Beaches Restaurant, celebrate birthday of

Dr. Seuss, aka Theodor Seuss Geisel.

20 years: How long the event has been going on.

About 4,000 first-graders served.

About 3,000 parents and grandparents served.

48 schools involved.

12,825 eggs used.

Dr. Seuss’ real name was Theodor Seuss Geisel.

Geisel was born March 2, 1904.

The book “Green Eggs and Ham” was first published in 1960.

“Green Eggs and Ham” is the fourth best-selling English-language children’s book of all time, according to Publishers Weekly.

Maoist China banned the book from 1965 until Geisel’s death in 1991 because of its portrayal of early Marxism.

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Seuss fun and games

First-graders at Walnut Grove Elementary donned striped Cat-in-the-Hat chapeaus and dined on a breakfast of green eggs and ham Wednesday morning during the annual breakfast celebrating Dr. Seuss, reading and family.

The tradition was started 20 years ago by Mark Matthias, owner of Beaches Restaurant & Bar, to mark the birthday of Dr. Seuss. He had been brainstorming with Jan Redding of Vancouver Public Schools about how to get more parents to visit their children’s schools.

Because it was near the birthday of Theodor Seuss Geisel, also known as Dr. Seuss, the children’s book author, he had an idea. Matthias offered to gather volunteers to make a breakfast of green eggs and ham for the first-graders at one school with a high number of students from families with low incomes. More than half of the parents showed up to eat with their kids.

But Matthias wanted to do more. The next year, he and a group of volunteers made green eggs and ham for three schools. In the third year, they went into five schools.

“Then we doubled up and did a couple of schools per day,” Matthias said. “Now we do about 10 schools per day.”

During five mornings this week, the teams of volunteers are feeding first-graders and their parents at 48 schools. That’s more than 7,000 people — and about 4,000 of them are first-graders– in all Vancouver and Evergreen elementary schools. They also feed breakfast to some first-graders in Camas, Washougal and Ridgefield.

“It’s great to chip in,” Matthias said. “As many people who can help the schools out, the better.”

In the beginning, Matthias and his crew cracked all those eggs to make the green scrambled eggs. To save time, they switched to liquid eggs and added green food coloring. Now they prepare 12,825 eggs. The food is prepared by volunteers in the kitchens at Beaches and the Firstenburg Center.

Volunteer Kali Moore, 24, a Beaches employee, dished up plates along the assembly line. Jay Haldeman wore a Cat in the Hat tie with this airline pilot uniform. It’s the fifth year he’s helped at the event.

“How are you, buddy?” Haldeman asked a boy while handing him a paper plate with all the fixings: green scrambled eggs, a slice of ham, milk, a banana and a fruit roll-up.

Students, parents and grandparents carried their plates back to their tables and chowed down. Some kids ate the green eggs. Some weren’t so sure.

And how did the green eggs taste?

“Excellent!” said Paige Diehl, 7.

“Tastes kind of like regular eggs,” said Claire Jodoin, 7, who had devoured every bit of her ham. She poked at the green eggs with her fork.

“She’s a slow eater,” said her grandmother, Terrie Posey.

Only a few crumbs of green eggs remained on the plate of Daniel Hinkey, 6.

“They kind of taste like scrambled eggs,” the boy said.

“He’s not a huge egg eater,” said his dad, Shannon Hinkey. “He did good.”

One boy who had taken a bite or two of the green eggs on his plate did not seem interested in finishing his eggs.

“It needed seasoning,” he said.

Wearing a red-and-white-striped hat, Principal Esteban Delgadillo stood looking around the cafeteria.

“It’s exciting to have all these parents here,” he said. “This is one of those fun events to come to with your kids and just enjoy it.”

Dr. Seuss books were tucked under his arm.

“Our kids have been reading a lot of Dr. Seuss books,” he said. “There’s a lot of good lessons in those books.”

The Cat in the Hat was portrayed by Delgadillo’s daughter, Ana Delgadillo, 18, a Columbia River High School graduate and now a freshman at Concordia College in Portland. She wandered from table to table to greet students and their families and pose for photos.

Each student attending a Cat in the Hat event would go home with a book, courtesy of the district’s foundation or Riverview Bank.

After the plates were cleared, the 130 first-graders performed “Green Eggs and Ham” from “Seussical the Musical” for their parents and teachers. Snapping their fingers, the kids moved, grooved, twirled and jumped while belting out:

“I do not like green eggs and ham

I do not like them, Sam-I-am

Do not like them here or there

I do not like them anywhere.

Not in a house, not with a mouse

Not here or there, not anywhere

I do not like green eggs and ham

I do not like them, Sam-I-am!”

Smiling, their parents chuckled and shot photos and video of the performance with their smartphones.

In the school kitchen, Matthias and his crew packed up and left to serve breakfast at another school. Time to serve green eggs and ham to more smiling first-graders.