Farmers agents across the state have been supporting their local communities via Farmers sponsorship with the VISAA, Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association. This is a program made up of private and parochial schools across the state. Over 50 Farmers agents, DMs and staff attended championship events in volleyball, football and soccer recently. The photo here shows Collegiate High School football players holding the Farmers banner and their trophy aloft.

In March and May 2010, Farmers agents will again be hosting the winter and spring championships.

When it comes to supporting the education community, and teachers in particular, it’s hard to find a corporation that is more engaged than Farmers Insurance.

“It all began about 12 years ago with the launch of The American Promise,” explained Riko Metzroth, Farmers Virginia State Executive Director. “We partnered with the National Council for the Social Studies and developed a program for social studies teachers to use in the classroom.” The American Promise went on to win several awards and is still used today in over 150,000 classrooms throughout the United States.

The American Promise was just the beginning. Since then, Farmers has developed, from the ground up, five more education programs that have been met with similar success. “Our philosophy is simple,” Metzroth continued, “We create quality programs for teachers that are easy to use and we provide them free of charge to any teacher who requests them.”

All five (5) Farmers’ history programs are aligned with the Virginia S.O.L., aka, Virginia Standards of Learning. Along with The American Promise, Farmers’ other history programs include Freedom’s Song (Black History), The Bronze Screen (Latino history), Liberty’s Apprentice, the just-released Asian-Pacific American program, Across the Waves.

So how does Farmers distribute these programs directly to teachers and educators? The answer to that is perhaps the most impressive aspect of Farmers’ commitment to educators – through local agents.

“As a Farmers agent I am encouraged to reach out and give back to my community” said Williamsburg Farmers agent Mike Lewis. “And our award-winning education programs that we offer free to teachers have enabled me to provide help were it’s really needed – in the schools.” Lewis is one of 200 agents in Virginia agents who believe that giving back to their community is its own reward. And, this army of education advocates actively work with the superintendents, schools and teachers in their community to provide these much needed resources.

To learn more about these programs, contact Farmers’ Virginia state Office at 804-272-6920. To find a local Farmers agent, visit www.farmers.com.

Over the years, Farmers has won numerous insurance-related awards. Now they’re being recognized in a new category: filmmaking. Farmers recently received the Platinum “Remi” award for Best Educational Documentary for their newest project, Across the Waves, Voices from the Asian-Pacific American Community. The award was announced on Saturday, April 25, 2009 in Houston at the WorldFest Film Festival, one of the oldest and largest film and video competitions in the world. WorldFest receives more than 4,500 entries submitted from 37 countries every year.

Randy Rice, who oversees the Education Programs and Eastern Zone Affinity Markets, and Dan Winter, director of Audio Visual, worked together to produce and direct the film.

“The award is exciting,” said Randy, “but it’s just part of the excitement that’s been building around this project. The documentary has been so well received, and it’s truly a phenomenon because of the stories themselves--some of them have never been told before. The biggest honor is having been part of bringing them to light.”

Across the Waves celebrates Asian-Pacific American heritage and highlights individuals from the Asian-Pacific American community who have overcome the odds to do extraordinary things. Narrated by Sandra Oh (Grey’s Anatomy) and Ming Na (Mulan), the documentary includes interviews with some of the most influential figures in the Asian-Pacific American community, including Secretary of Commerce, Gary Locke, U.S. House Representative Mike Honda and NASA Space Shuttle Astronaut Sunita Williams. Also featured in the program is Farmers Insurance agent Harry Dao from Houston, who describes his courageous escape from Vietnam to America.

It marks the third film festival award for Across the Waves in this past year. The documentary has also received the Best Director Award at the Chashama Film Festival in New York City and the Grand Festival Award at the Berkeley Film Festival in Berkeley, Calif.

The documentary is part of a complete lesson plan developed through a partnership with UCLA’s Asian Heritage Center, one of the nation’s premier authorities on the Asian-American experience. Across the Waves and other award-winning documentaries are offered by Farmers agents to local schools at no cost to them.

Farmers agents Chip Healy, Patrick Bryant, and Cal Ingraham (pictured left to right) made a $1,000 donation to the Idaho Statesman Newspapers in Education program recently. The donation will go towards providing over 8,000 newspapers to local area schools so teachers can have an effective resource for teaching children about current events from around the world.

Milwaukee, WI -- A team of Farmers Insurance employees, agents and district managers showed up for school at Congress Elementary School in Milwaukee today, as part of Read Across America Day, to deliver breakfast and books to more than 930 children.

“In honor of universal kids favorite Dr. Seuss, we wore ‘Cat-In-The-Hat’ style hats,” said Eric Petersen, State Executive Director of Farmers Insurance in Wisconsin. “It’s our way of showing the students reading is fun for a lifetime.”

The festively dressed Farmers Insurance group also read to 12 classrooms at Congress School.

Assistant Principal, Ms. Peña, spoke about how wonderful it was to have Farmers Insurance bring these kids breakfast. She mentioned that many of these children rarely eat breakfast and some often don’t have lunch either.

District Manager Kevin Lewis said, “These teachers spend a lot of time working hard for these kids and making their lives better. I’m just glad that we could bring these teachers something to brighten their day and something for the kids to get their day going.”

Farmers Insurance has an established community partnership with Milwaukee Public Schools. As part of this partnership, Farmers donated copies of its award winning documentary "Freedom's Song" to the school district. Freedom’s Song brings African-American history to life in a documentary film highlighting significant milestones in the history of the African-American experience during the past century. More than 100 Milwaukee schools are using Freedom’s Song as part of the curriculum during Black History month.

“We are thrilled to have this opportunity to work with Farmers Insurance,” said Tina Flood, Social Studies Administrator of Milwaukee Public Schools. “It is amazing to see a company that is expanding its community involvement in these tough economic times.”

Farmers also gave every student a canvas book bag with a book to take home, and 100 Teachers and Aides received special gift bags to thank them for their important commitment to education.