Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2014 | 7:49 p.m.
Brenda Moynihan was in the middle of teaching her third-grade class when she got the call to go to the library.
She didn’t think it was strange at the time, just part of her job on a normal Wednesday morning at C.T. Sewell Elementary School. But when she returned, her classroom was filled with TV cameras, Farmers Insurance executives, and her students all shouting, “Surprise.”
It was then that she found out her grant proposal was one of 15 finalists selected nationwide to be in the running to win $100,000 for her school through the insurance company’s “Dream Big Challenge.”
“I was completely in shock and overwhelmed with emotion,” Moynihan said.
The challenge is part of Farmers Insurance’s “Thank a Million Teachers” program. Teachers from schools around the U.S. submitted proposals on how they would use $100,000 to improve their school and community. Farmers Insurance then reviewed the proposals and whittled them down to 15 finalists. Five winners will then be selected through online voting.
Moynihan had proposed to use the money to create a Sewell Student and Family Technology Center. The Henderson campus is an at-risk school where many children and families don’t have access to technology to continue learning at home, Moynihan said.
The center would be filled with computers, laptops and tablets that students can use to access online assignments and parents can use to be involved in their education.
“We are hoping to build on that home-to-school connection, where parents could access the technology center during the day to receive resources to make the lives better for themselves and their family,” Moynihan said.
She had filled it out with the help of other teachers and the school’s principal in July, but she never imagined hers would be selected as a finalist.
“Everything was completely unexpected,” Moynihan said. “Farmers Insurance said it was a possibility, but it was a complete shock to me.”
Starting Oct. 1, the proposals will be open to public voting at thankamillionteachers.com. The top five vote-getters will win the grant.
Now that the shock of being selected as a finalist is over, Moynihan has set her sights on winning the whole thing.
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