Welcome to Mattie’s website!

Click on News and Events for updates on the following items:

• King Farm Screamin’ Geese Swim Team go more than 5,000 laps and raise more than $15,000 for Mattie’s Foundation during “Mattie’s Heartsong Swim” --- the cornerstone event of ‘Mattie Stepanek Week in Rockville, MD. Extra t-shirts from the event will be sold through this website, to continue supporting Mattie’s Foundation (email heartsongbooks@aol.com for more information).
  
  
• Carlstadt, NJ Mayor Wm. Jay Roseman facilitates a visit from the children in his town who wanted to attend the Mass honoring Mattie’s 3rd anniversary.
  
  
• The Rosalynn Carter Institute announces the 2007 recipients of the Mattie J.T. Stepanek Intergenerational Caregiving Scholarship.
• Mattie’s final book --- “Just Peace: A Message of Hope” --- receives a Gold Medal in the 2007 Independent Publisher Book Awards Outstanding Books of the Year competition.
  
  
•  “Bark Busters” helps host a dog party for canine friends in new dog park park in Mattie’s Park. Glenda Cohen, from the Montgomery County program, works with Mattie’s service dog “Micah” to help him maintain his good behavior and social skills.

MATTIE FOUNDATION & PARK NEWS:

• The playground at Mattie’s Park is now open, along with the ‘Dog Park,’ ball courts, and other parts of the 28 acre Mattie J.T. Stepanek Park at King Farm in Rockville, MD. Pavilion, concession stand, skate area, ball fields, and other park amenities aren’t far behind (visit www.rockvillemd.gov/cip/stepanek-park.gif for map).
  
  
• Sponsorship opportunities for Mattie’s Foundation are still available --- don’t miss the opportunity to have the name of someone special on a brick in Mattie’s Peace Garden, or to have your name in a set of books that will be donated to a school in your area! The mission of Mattie’s Foundation includes making Mattie’s message of hope and peace available to all people so that it can be celebrated across generations. The Foundation is also financially supporting the bronze statue of Mattie and other aspects of the Peace Garden area of the park named in his honor. Through Mattie’s Foundation, complete sets of his books will be donated to schools and libraries, and activities, contests, and programs will be sponsored to help children and adults understand and share a message of hope and peace with their neighbors “around the block and around the world.” One hundred percent of the money donated to Mattie’s Foundation goes toward these efforts, all officers, advisors, and members of the Foundation serve as volunteers in this effort. ---
   CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD BROCHURE

• The MDA Mattie Fund continues to grow and fund research and programs for children with neuromuscular disease, as well as the MDA Mattie Stepanek Fellowship Award for research focusing on mitochondrial diseases. The first award is to Stefanie Zanssen, a physician-scientist in the Department of Neurology at Columbia University in New York. (visit www.mda.org).

WAFF NEWS:

• Musician Paul Simon accepts the 2007 Mattie J.T. Stepanek Peacemaker Award during the We Are Family Foundation annual New York  gala which raised more than one million dollars. Previous recipients include Quincy Jones and Maya Angelou.
  
  
• Plans are underway for the first annual ‘Just Peace Summit,’ a global peace initiative called “Three Dot Dash” to be held in spring, 2008. The program, inspired by Mattie’s ‘Peace is Possible’ philosophy that resonates in his “Just Peace: A Message of Hope” book, will bring together teens from around the world who will learn about and continue Mattie’s ‘peace buzz’ (visit www.threedotdash.org or www.wearefamilyfoundation.org)

OTHER LEGACY NEWS:

• Hallmark Channel’s “American Morning” program will air an interview with Mattie’s mom and his ‘very favorite adult best friend’ Sandy Newcomb on July 23 at 7 a.m. EST (check local cable listings for Hallmark Channel station).

• The 50th Anniversary Concert at Millennium Park in Chicago featured the world premier of ‘Reflections of a Peacemaker’, a collection of Mattie’s poetry set to music and performed by the Chicago Children’s Choir. (Visit www.ccchoir.org
  or
  http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/nearwest/chi-0615_m_choirjun15,1,253269.story?coll=chi-newslocalnearwest-hed
  
  
•  The children's community theatre near Atlanta, GA will be performing 'Butterfly Summer' during October, 2007, an original play and musical score created largely from Mattie's poetry (this website will soon have more information about this production: www.lspaarts.com ).