SACRAMENTO - "The Big Spin®" show aired Saturday, June 26, 2004 and featured Melinda Moreno of Pleasant Hill who received the Lottery's "Exceptional Educator" Award from Senator Tom Torlakson. Ms. Moreno is a professor at Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill. For the past 14 years, she has made a name for herself through her exceptional work with disabled students.
Inside the classroom, Ms. Moreno has to work around seeing-eye dogs and wheel chairs. She welcomes her students with special needs with a warm encouraging smile. The students' needs are as diverse as their disabilities. Each student has a different goal or aspiration and it's up to Ms. Moreno to provide the right encouragement, the right tools and the right skills to open up the huge opportunities that her students may never have thought possible. She has touched each of her students' lives by empowering them to strive to their fullest potential.
The California Lottery's "Exceptional Educator" Award has been presented on "The Big Spin®" television show since April of 2001. The Lottery enlists legislators and state officials to present these awards which recognize outstanding teachers whose extraordinary efforts help California students to succeed.
In 2003 the California Lottery contributed $1 billion to public schools for the third consecutive year and is on course to meet this goal for a fourth consecutive year.
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