After his wife was diagnosed with cancer in 2012, one 20-year Montebello school teacher made the “most difficult choice of [his] life” to walk away from his livelihood in order to take care of her, a choice he says led him down a new path to spread joy in his community.
“It’s like a special calling … something I need to do to share with the Arcadia community,” longtime resident James Val told The Epoch Times.
James “Jim” Val at his home in Arcadia, Calif., on Dec. 9, 2022. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)
Val has had a long history of showmanship in his life. Before teaching 4th-grade and intermediate-level children at Fremont Elementary and Montebello Intermediate schools in the Montebello Unified School District, he starred in a number of movies including “Pork Chop Hill,” a 1959 Korean War film starring Gregory Peck….