By Theresa Harrington

After the Contra Costa Times wrote a “Hometown Hero” story about former Sequoia Middle School student Larry Wang’s project teaching Sequoia Elementary students how to play instruments, I received a phone call from a producer at BYU who wanted to make a video about him.

Larry decided to take on this project after the Mt. Diablo school board cut fourth-grade music due to budget cuts. Since he had learned music in elementary school, he didn’t want new fourth-graders to miss out on the same experience.

His project was a resounding success! This year, fifth-grade music was eliminated due to budget cuts and Larry transferred into the Acalanes district, where he is a musician in the Acalanes HS band. But his legend lives on at the Sequoia schools in Pleasant Hill.

Do you know of other student “Hometown Heroes?”