A group called Moments Change Lives (MCL) was created by a group of anonymous donors early in 2016 to receive nominations about inspirational educators at Blue Valley Northwest, Blue Valley North and Blue Valley West.

A member of MCL, who referred to himself as the “instigator” of the organization, said award winners from each school will be given a cash prize at an assembly before the end of the school year. He said MCL will review the nominations and work with principals to determine which educators will receive the award. One winner will be chosen from each school.

“It’s about finding a person who’s making a difference and learning about what they do in their schools,” the member said. “[We’re] then going through each of those applications to see who stands out and see who’s doing great work. It’s subjective, as it has to be, in a process like this. It’s not a ‘check the box’ kind of process.”

The MCL member said the awards will be spendable at the award winner’s discretion, and the money for the awards will come from MCL’s members out-of-pocket. He said he and the other donors, who are active members in the Blue Valley community, chose to remain anonymous in order to keep the nomination process solely about those who are being honored.

“All it takes is simple moments of kindness, compassion, recognition, gratitude and friendship between people to change lives for the better,” the member said. “There is probably no better location, no better place that this happens every day than in classrooms…We see those kinds of things happening every day with very inspirational educators, whether they be administrators, people working in the building, teachers. Those kinds of moments happen all the time and it does change people’s lives.”

He said MCL has received over 100 nominations for educators from the three schools, along with requests for them to expand to other schools since the nominations opened in March. He said they hope to include Blue Valley Southwest and Blue Valley High by next year, and the group has hopes to expand to areas outside Blue Valley as well.

“I know there’s a lot of great things happening, but it’s been exciting,” the member said. “This being the first year and getting it rolled out…I’d expect this to get even better when we learn how to communicate even better to parents and teachers and students.”

He said in general, MCL was created to encourage educators by recognizing them for the differences they are making in the community.

“I hope it’s another step in getting them to realize that they’re making a difference in people’s lives, whether they win or whether they don’t win one year after the other,” the member said. “We believe it’s going have a great impact. People are watching them and they’re making a difference.”

Nominations will go through April 29. Nominate an educator here.