Posted by Tony, a resident of the Diablo neighborhood, on Aug 27, 2012 at 1:33 pm

Talk about hometown heroes. Way to go! Danville should be very proud. Maggie and Jessica have accomplished something we only dare to dream about. Their hard work paid off big time. Stanford's opponents beware.

Posted by bz, a resident of the Blackhawk neighborhood, on Aug 29, 2012 at 6:48 am

They truly are heroes! What wonderful examples for young people to see that hard work and dedication truly pay off (in every arena!)

I especially love the fact that they are able to share this extraordinary experience with each other! What a DOUBLE thrill! Thank you and contratulations, Maggie and Jessica!!

Posted by C. R. Mudgeon, a resident of the Danville neighborhood, on Aug 30, 2012 at 3:23 pm

Jessica and Maggie Steffens were also nice enough to stay after their presentation to sign lots of autographs on handed-out color photos of the two of them, taken shortly after winning the gold. (There was a "Music in the Park" concert that started right after the Hometown Heroes presentation, and so the line for autographs kept getting longer!) They signed non-stop for an hour.

When Jessica noted jokingly that there wasn't a similar event when she won silver in Beijing, Mayor Newell Arnerich joked back that to get a key to the city of Danville, it has to be gold... (He always does a good job at award-type events and makes it to a lot of them, such as Eagle Scout courts of honor, and other youth programs.)

(A bit of trivia is that the third "key to the city" went to "Sully" Sullenberger, whereas keys 4 and 5 went to the Steffens. I forget what the story is with keys 1 and 2...)

A great event - congratulations to the Steffens sisters (and family) for their achievements, and congratulations to Danville for putting on the event.