Community members gathered at Mattie J.T. Stepanek Park in Rockville on Saturday to celebrate the life and legacy of the boy poet who wrote of his visions of peace.
Stepanek died in 2004 just weeks before his 14th birthday, due to complications from a neuromuscular disease. His birthday is July 17. The annual Peace Day celebration honors the legacy of Stepanek and the messages he left behind — “because the message is timeless, the message is universal,” his mother said.
