Mattie Stepanek

Mattie. Stepanek (www.bronxworld.com)

Who is a hero; someone who’s brave, someone who’s smart, well I know… he’s Mattie Stepanek. Mattie Stepanek is a kid who is a poet, but sadly he passed away in the morning, on June 22,2004 from a disease called dysautonomic mitochondrial myopathy. Which means his ‘automatic’ systems, like breathing, heart rate, body temperature, oxygenation, digestion, and other things don’t always work so well on their own. So he uses an oxygen tank.

Mattie has won the “Mattie Stepanek Champion Award” which was created by Ann Armstrong Dailey. In which he brought joy to kids everywhere.

Mattie is a hero to me because, to be so young to write poems so great like that and be able to write books. That just takes the golden plate, and that’s what makes a hero to me!