Woodrow Price almost missed the emailed.

Searching through his spam folder in November he stumbled upon an email from the National Life Group informing him that he had been nominated for the LifeChanger of the Year Award.

The LifeChanger of the Year Awards have been given out since 2006 and recognizes K-12 educators who make “a significant difference in the lives of students by exemplifying excellence, positive influence and leadership.”

Price, who is a first grade teacher at Sherman Avenue, was nominated by an anonymous member of the Warren County community for the impact he has on students.

“Wow someone recognizes the things that I do for the children,” Price said of his reaction when he saw he’d been nominated. “Even to be nominated is a reward in itself because it makes you emotional to see that you go to work every day trying to do the best things that are in the interest for children. Someone on the outside recognizes you, that is an honor in itself.”

Price has taught for 11 years including the last three at Sherman Avenue and entered the field to help right the wrong that had been inflicted upon him by teachers growing up.

“I started teaching after I had a teacher tell me when I was in fourth grade that I would never be anything,” Price said. “As a result, I failed fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh grade. I wanted to prove that teacher wrong so I enrolled at Alcorn State University in 2001 and I majored in elementary education.”

Price finished his bachelors in 2006 and completed his masters in education in 2009.

“To me, teaching is a ministry and I think that I was called to help change lives and help prove people that are negative wrong,” Price said. “Every school that I work at, I try to work at a school that is a critical needs school and need additional help. I am the only certified male that works at Sherman Avenue Elementary and I think I am the only male teacher pre-K through second grade in the Vicksburg Warren School District.”

Price started as a fifth grade teacher, but said he made the transition to the lower grades after recognizing the need for male role models amongst younger children.

“They don’t see positive role models because a lot of children grow up in single-family homes,” Price said. “I can relate to them because I once grew up in a single family home so I know what it’s like not being able to see a positive male figure when I go home.”

Price didn’t stop there though. He also started a program called Real Men Read to help introduce his students to more positive male role models from throughout the community. The program was started in 2015 and brings in male role models once a month to read to the students.

Price has also hosted a Christmas toy drive at the school the last three years aimed at helping his students have a brighter Christmas.

“We were focusing on friendly letters and a lot of children had written down what they wanted for Christmas and a lot of children wanted a bike,” Price said. “So I initiated a Facebook campaign and within 24 hours I had 30 bikes for each child in my classroom.”

The next year they collected almost 200 scooters and gave one to each first grader and this year they collected more than 450 toys and gave one to every student in the school.

“I want to be remembered by my children as a life changer and someone who actually cared about them,” Price said. “A lot of people think teachers go into the field to teach reading, writing, math, science, social studies, but there is more to being a teacher. Once you have a child in the classroom and they see that you care, that is more important than anything.”

The National Life Group awards one $10,000 grand prize LifeChanger Award split between the winner and the winner’s school/district as well as four $5000 awards split between the winner and the winner’s school/district. There will also be 10 winners of a $3000 LifeChanger Award and one winner of the LifeChanger Spirit Award.

The spirit award is given to the nominee with the most support from his or her community. To show your support for Price you can add a comment to his profile page at app.lifechangeroftheyear.com/nomination_detail.cfm?NominationID=957&NominationYear=2017.