Farmers Insurance Honors Those Who Make Us Smarter With The 'Thank A Million Teachers' Float At The 2014 Tournament of Roses Parade®

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 1, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Farmers Insurance is ringing in the New Year by honoring those who make us smarter with the "Thank A Million Teachers" float at the Tournament of Roses Parade. In Farmers' 55^th entry to the renowned event, the float will celebrate the "Thank A Million Teachers" initiative, which invites America to make 2014 the year to thank a million teachers.  Riding the float will be honored educators from Montana and Nevada, alongside local Los Angeles students.  Through the "Thank A Million Teachers" platform, Farmers has committed up to $1,000,000 in funds to classrooms and education programs.  The celebration at the 2014 Rose Parade follows a recent kick-off event where actor Jack Black offered the first "thank you" to his former teacher and mentor, Debbie Devine.

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Helena, Mont. middle school teacher Mike Agostinelli and Dayton, Nev. elementary school teacher Bridget Thompson will represent the nation's dedicated teachers in front of more than 52 million television viewers and another 900,000 people at the Rose Parade as the float glides down Colorado Boulevard.  With the support of Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval and Montana Governor Steve Bullock, the Farmers Insurance-developed initiative has driven residents in those states to offer more than 10,000 "thanks" to educators and has awarded $75,000 in grants to teachers in those states during the past two and a half months.  Also on the float, representing students across the nation, are local Los Angeles students Natalie Delpino, Markaylla Hale, Jazmyn Meza, Luis Moreno, Rafael Orozco, Jose Padilla, Yvonne Pina, and Giovanni Valle who won a local essay contest writing about a teacher they wanted to thank and why.

"Farmers' 55th presence in the Tournament of Roses parade provides an ideal platform for us to create excitement about America's teachers and our Thank A Million Teachers program," said Mike Linton, Chief Marketing Officer of Farmers Insurance. "At Farmers, we believe in smart, and we are proud to recognize those whose impact results in smarter futures for all of us."

Sending a personal thanks is easy:

• Go to www.ThankAMillionTeachers.com to thank a favorite educator.  Farmers will provide a real-time tally of all the "thank you's" recorded on the www.ThankAMillionTeachers.com website.
• On the dedicated website, teachers will also be able to submit proposals for grants valued at up to $2,500 for use in their classroom through the end of October 2014.  Details about the proposal submission process are available at www.ThankAMillionTeachers.com.
• Beginning in March, and every other month thereafter through November, the public will be invited to vote of those proposals submitted during the previous entry period.  In April, June, August, October and December, 30 winners from across the nation will be selected.

In partnership with several of its supporters in the education community, including the Education Commission for the States, the American Association of School Administrators, the National Council for the Social Studies and the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, among others, Farmers will further raise awareness of this important and innovative program through a series of regional events in Washington, DC, Chicago, Austin and Los Angeles during January.

About Farmers Insurance
Farmers Insurance Group of Companies is a leading U.S. insurer group of automobiles, homes and small businesses and also provides a wide range of other insurance and financial services products. Farmers Insurance is proud to serve more than 10 million households with more than 20 million individual policies across all 50 states through the efforts of over 50,000 exclusive and independent agents and nearly 24,000 employees.

The Farmers Exchanges are three reciprocal insurers (Farmers Insurance Exchange, Fire Insurance Exchange and Truck Insurance Exchange), including their subsidiaries and affiliates, owned by their policyholders. Farmers Group, Inc., along with its subsidiaries, manages the non-claims insurance operations of the Farmers Exchanges. Farmers Group, Inc. is wholly owned by the Zurich Insurance Group. For more information about Farmers, visit its Web site at www.farmers.com or at www.Facebook.com/FarmersInsurance.

To view the multimedia assets associated with this release, please click: http://www.multivu.com/mnr/64791-farmers-insurance-thank-a-million-teachers-float-2014-rose-parade

SOURCE Farmers Insurance