Music teacher tim wilson. One, two, ready, go. Reporter as the music teacher, tim wilson spends his day surrounded by music, using it to touch peoples lives. Its something in and a round about way tim has been doing his whole life. A very round about way, we should add. Yes. Im here to make a difference with what i think i can offer. Reporter tim was a bit of a trumpet prodigy. His talent eventually finding a home for 20 years in the orchestra of the San Francisco opera where tim rose to the position of principal trumpet player. He got glaucoma. When he played, that pressure rose. That could be a risk for blindness early in life if you dont stop playing the trumpet. Reporter and with that, tims career was over. He didnt pick up his trumpet until years later while trying to get certified as a music teacher. Tim, not realizing how much he missed it until he had an audience. A woman who has wandered in to watch him practice. I could watch the emotional in her psyche. I realized what it is to be a musician and being able to move their hearts. You have a good ear for hearing when it goes up and down. Nice job. Reporter it is just what tim wanted to provide his students when he started teaching, but something was missing. A lot of somethings. No resources to teach the kids what they want. Reporter he was fortunate enough to find a nonprofit called little kids rock. They also provided 30 free guitars to help him do it. Still, that wasnt enough for each student to take an instrument to home to practice and that wasnt good enough for tim. Ill never get the resources that these kids need by the time theyre gone off to high school. Thats not fair to them, so i just bought what i thought we needed right then and there so i didnt have to deal with the red tape. Reporter no red tape, just a lot of boxes because tim has since bought some 80 guitars with amplifiers to match. There are also the keyboards, drums, drum kits. The list goes on. Jim broadstreet is with little kids rock. We all put money in our classrooms, but a level like this tim wilson has taken it to another level. They deserve every advantage, so i just started showing up whatever we needed and i asked myself this question out of discipline, out of compassion, if it was my kid, how would i treat that child. Reporter tim has been too busy organizing all the gear to stop and count how much he spent. He guesses it is between 50,000 and 100,000 all on a musicians pension and a middle schoolteachers salary. Thats the kind of advantage every one of these kids needs and they dont have it. So if i can provide it, i want to. Our next story is also about a teacher and coach who is paying it forward though not with dollars, but with some nontraditional ideas. Those ideas are to help his players become not just good athletes, but good people. When jake took over the head coaching job at sunnyvales Fremont High School two years ago, he was warned that trying to turn around a program that has struggled for years, both on and off the field, wasnt going to be just difficult. People told me it was utterly impossible at this school, that it couldnt happen and it wouldnt happen. People tell me a lot of things. Reporter well, between the sidelines, the coach has certain proven them wrong. Going into last fridays game against rival homestead fremont was undefeated. 90, the best start in the schools history. Which is not what coach messina is most proud of. If nothing else, we have succeeded in getting the Football Program reconnected to the school. Reporter for evidence of that, look no further than beth, cheering from behind the end zone. In 13 years at fremont, beth had never been to a Football Game. I feel like it is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Reporter but then this season, the coach suggested to his players that before home games, they give their away jerseys not a girlfriend or cheerleader, but to a teacher who has made a difference in their lives. Prescott gave his first jersey to beth. I just really reflected on how much she helped me and what she brought me today in the classroom. I thought, oh, wow, maybe he didnt hate me as much as i thought he did. One of my best memories. Reporter tonya is wearing the jersey this week, the second one shes been given this year. As a teacher, it is mind boggling to get that feedback of knowing you have made a difference in my life is just huge. Reporter this simple gesture has improved their relationships as well as the grades. Proving that even some of lifes biggest wins never show up in the record book. Coming up, connecting with others through crochet. Im comforting all those people in the world that need comfort during this hard time. How this bay area woman is helping to heal herself by helping others. Plus, current students and faculty put a twist on honoring alumni long since graduated. It was the one missing link. Looking for one of these . Yoplait. Smooth, creamy, and craved by the whole family. Unlocking some secrets from the past using some new technology. The Technology Makes a digital map of the surface of old recordings and then turns those images into sound. Its been used on some very historic recordings and one very personal one as well. Theres a place in andover, massachusetts, where they are experts at preserving history. The northeast Document Conservation Center is like a hospital for old books, documents, and photographs, a place where they go to get their l lives extended, or in the case of this record, be brought back to life. He has waited decades to hear. I think im going to have to hold my breath because its going to be emotional. Reporter the sound on that record is the voice of matts grandfather, ray. Lieutenant ray, a b24 bombdier. When i got older, my curiosity went beyond that and i actually wanted to know some of the facts from beyond just the pictures. Reporter so matt, at the time a television reporter, poured himself into the reach, eventually producing a twopart tv series about his grandfathers service, yet still lacking something matt would have loved to have had. The voice of my grandfather. It was the one missing link. Reporter missing until matt found these earlier this year in the garage of his grandmothers home while helping her move. Upon returning from the war, ray sat down for an interview with an omaha, nebraska, radio station. An interview they reported on two 78s. Records matts family lost track of years and years ago. Now they were so close, literally in his hands, yet still lost in a way. Theres a radio crack on both of them which makes them unplayable. Reporter which led him to andover and Technology Developed at a lab where a camera captures High Resolution images of the records grooves and then a computer processes those into sound, sound theyre about to listen to for the first time. What were you doing before the war . I was working in a grocery store, my mothers grocery store. Reporter a small piece of American History perhaps, but one that couldnt sound any bigger to one mans ears. This is precious, right . This is it, so it is really nice to finally hear it. Our next story is also about preserving history, but in this case someone elses history just because it is the honorable thing to do. It takes place at the Kings Academy, a private Christian Prep School founded in the early 90s. At kings, they talk a lot about honor and they back it up too. At the Kings Academy in sunnyvale renovations are just about complete on their brandnew quad. New concrete, new awnings, new landscaping, all making it much more attractive. But it is the new screws holding up the old plaques that are the most meaningful. We wanted to make sure those plaques were displayed in a more honorable way. Reporter he is director of operations for the Kings Academy. Anything that needs scheduling or building or renovating, it falls into my category. Reporter the plaques are one for each graduating class from 1958 to 1980, but not graduates of this school. Kings academy occupies the campus that was once home to Sunnyvale High School. The district closed that school in the early 80s. They left their plaques and a sun dial behind. They could have ripped all of them up and handed them back. It wasnt their history after all. Right. Thank you very much. We chose instead to honor the site, the honor those who were part of this campus. Reporter they didnt have to preserve someone elses history, but they did. Just like they didnt have to make last fridays Football Game the Sunnyvale High School alumni game. But they did that too. It was Kings Academy versus socal between the sidelines, but a sunnyvale reunion everywhere else. These alumni may no longer have a school, but thanks to the kindness of others, theyll always have a home. I thank them from the bottom of my heart and so do the rest of us. Were just so touched. Still ahead, a san jose room and recent College Graduate steps it up in a big way to honor and support navy seals. Shes doing it one step at a time. Imagine running a marathon every day for more than four months. Its an epic journey, one kristina lee recently completed. One that gained more meaning each time she hit the road. After more than four months on the road, after crossing a dozen states, after covering more than 2700 miles, kristina lee has just a few hundred left to go. You might be tempted to tell kristina it is all downhill from here. Just dont do it on her first day many the sierra mountains. No, its not. In fact, it is straight uphill. Reporter you can blame it on the bucket list, kristina says. The one she wrote a couple of years ago while in college in new york. The 23yearold from san jose wanted some big challenges in there, so running across the country new york to San Francisco all by yourself made the list. There was, in her mind, no turning back after that. Because once i wrote it down, i was going to do it. You put it there. Youre going to do it. Reporter after graduation this year, kristina decided to run home without too much of a plan, but with a purpose. A lifelong supporter of the military, kristina planned to raise money along the way for the navy seal foundation. She began the run thinking of all the seals who served. She is finishing, though, focused on one in particular. The one whose widow reached out to her one week into the jour y journey. She sent me this email and said these people really changed my life. Reporter Jennifer Collins went on to tell kristina about her husband david, about the traumatic brain injury the navy seal suffered while serving overseas, how the 35yearold ended up taking his own life, and the help that the foundation has given to her and her two children. Service and sacrifice has made any troubles she faced along the way much less trouble now. Whenever im tempted to complain, i think they had it so much worse. Reporter it is also why she is more convinced than ever she made the right choice to go big while going home. I will have thrown everything i have had at this run and i can walk away at peace knowing i did everything in my power. Still ahead, making a difference stitch by stitch and square by square. Meet the bay area woman who gives comfort to others at a time they need it most. Looking for one of these . Yoplait. Smooth, creamy, and craved by the whole family. Our final story tonight starts with a question. How do you put together 24 squares and come out with one big heart . Well, in searching for a way to honor her late mother, one cupertino woman figured out just how. Stage 4 is rather scary. Reporter nicole has had a lot of practice telling her mothers story, though practice in this case doesnt make perfect. Try not to cry because i still its very hard. Reporter nicole grew up in northeast pennsylvania. Her mom raising two kids working two jobs. The familys meager lifestyle a source of embarrassment at the time for nicole. Very, very embarrassing. I wouldnt let anybody know. I would stay home a lot. Reporter but with age and embarrassment was transformed into admiration. She was the one that cared and always listened. Reporter listening is all nicole could do three years ago when a doctor gave marianne some bad news. I get goose bumps remembering that image. Everywhere you see yellow, thats cancer. And it was from her head to her toes and it looked like her body was on fire. It was yellow everywhere. Reporter marianne died in november of 2012. Nicole, now a mom herself, fell into a depression. It is her husband who suggested taking a class to take her mind somewhere else. When i saw that crochet class, i just knew that was my connection back to my mom. Reporter crochet because it was something her mom used to do. Crochet because it was something nicole thought she could do to help others going through what she did. Nicole never took that class. Instead she opened a laptop and began teaching herself. How about we get the world involved . Reporter project chemo crochet was born. Im comforting all those people in the world that need comfort during this hard time. Reporter they would sew them together into blankets for people battles cancer. Within two weeks, the first squares starting coming in and less than two years nicole and her team has stitched close to 700 blankets all over the country with no idea of slowing down now. I know people want to help, and im not asking for money. Im asking for your time. Im asking for a piece of you to be a part of something bigger. Thanks again for joining us for this bay area proud special. You can see any stories every tuesday and thursday evenings in our 5 00 newscast and all the reports are on our website. Just go to nbcbayarea. Com and scroll down to the bay area proud segment. We get many of these stories from you, our viewers. If you know somebody who should be featured in a bay area proud segment, i want to hear from you. Have a good night. ] announcer the following program is sponsored by operation smile. Every year, hundreds of thousands of children are born with cleft lip and or cleft palate. Dr. Bill magee why should any child, anywhere on this planet, have to live a life of misery. Kathy majette a lot of people think that children that are born with these deformities are cursed. Just imagine a life alone, that nobody wanted to be around you. Norrie oelkers and we had children coming in for screening with brown bags over their head. Theyre never allowed to leave their house unless they have a bag on their heads. Kathy majette some children dont live, because they have problems with eating, and drinking, and die of malnutrition. Mel and they see us as their last resort. Dr. Jill gora every child deserves a fair chance at life, Peggy Stillman it may only take an hour to do something that will change their lives forever. Noreen kessler and you just see a whole new person, a whole new beginning. Its almost like theyre reborn. I cant think of another word but phenomenal. [ music ] roma downey as a mother, i would do anything i could to help my child live a normal life. And im sure you would, too. But what if you couldnt do anything . What if you were totally helpless . Thats the situation for hundreds and thousands of parents in developing countries whose children are born with cleft lip or cleft palate. In the united states, these deformities are corrected shortly after birth. But in many countries around the world, these children are left untreated and are shunned. [ music ] [ childrens voices ] roma downey im in le loi hospital. The volunteer operation smile medical team has come from all over the world to perform surgeries, and parents have brought their children here,