The Barron Prize was founded in 2001 by author T. A. Barron and was named for his mother, Gloria Barron. Each year, they honor 25 outstanding young leaders who have significantly impacted people, their communities, and the environment. Fifteen top winners receive $10,000 to support their service work or higher education.
This year, two North Texas students were recognized. Armando Parrish (18) of Garland was named a winner, and Paisley Elliott (10) of Grapevine has been named an honoree.
Armando Parrish founded Project Lorenzo, a nonprofit that works to end homelessness by providing technology certification courses and job assistance to homeless individuals in shelters.
Armando began his work nine years ago when he first met Lorenzo, who has lived for two decades under the highway near his mom’s office. After years of bringing food, batteries, and toiletries to Lorenzo, in 2021, Armando raised $4,000 through a GoFundMe campaign to provide long-term hotel stays for his friend.
He is piloting a Skilled Jobs program at a homeless shelter for pregnant women, where volunteers teach classes such as Google Support Professional. Once the women pass their certification test, Project Lorenzo works with Workforce Dallas to help find the women employment. Armando is funding his pilot program through a $10,000 award from the Dallas Foundation. He and his Board of Directors have also raised over $50,000 through events, including their annual 5K run and Music for Change festival. They use a portion of the funds to provide care packages of food, socks, and clothing for people living on the streets.
Paisley Elliott founded Paisley’s Pals to support refugee children around the world. She has raised $50,000 to create SHINE boxes, portable Montessori-based school kits containing easy-to-assemble lap desks and benches that can be shipped in an airplane’s overhead compartment. Paisley began her work in preschool after hearing a story about refugees and immediately collected over 200 stuffed animals for children fleeing Syria. Determined to make a more significant difference, she and her family raised $20,000 to build a school near a refugee camp in Greece, only to have the refugees relocated far from the school when the camp burned down. Paisley resolved to create portable classrooms for other refugee children and worked for more than a year to lay the groundwork for bringing SHINE boxes to the Rwamwanja Refugee Settlement in Western Uganda. In 2022, she and her family traveled to the settlement, where they partnered with the Refugee Innovation Center to set up SHINE boxes, establish digital skills training, and bike share programs. Paisley continues to support those initiatives and recently broke ground on the PeaceMaker Preschool at the settlement.
