48HourPrint.com’s Giving Across America Program Supports Mattie J.T. Stepanek Foundation

Boston-based 48HourPrint.com is providing a multi-year printing credit to the Mattie J.T. Stepanek Foundation as part of the company’s Giving Across America™ program. The initiative will help the foundation provide printed materials for its Pathways to Peace program, the For Our World campaign and an upcoming Peace Celebration. The Mattie J.T. Stepanek Foundation spreads the inspirational messages of hope and peace offered by the late teenage poet and New York Times bestselling author Mattie J.T. Stepanek.

“48HourPrint.com is honored to support this foundation,” said Andrew Gordon, vice president of sales marketing, and business development at 48HourPrint.com and president of the foundation. “This print credit will help the foundation advance its mission of spreading Mattie’s infectious message of peace and hope.”

During his nearly 14 years, before succumbing to a neuromuscular disease, Stepanek wrote six volumes of Heartsongs poetry and a Just Peace collection of essays and correspondence with former President Jimmy Carter, all of which made the bestseller lists. His poem, “For Our World,” a message of peace Stepanek penned on Sept. 11, 2001 in response to terrorist attacks in which he lost several friends, has been translated into nearly 50 languages. A Peace Celebration on Sept. 3 at the Peace Garden in the Mattie J.T. Stepanek Park near his home in King Farm, Rockville, Md., will mark the 10-year anniversary of the attacks and kick off the foundation’s Pathways to Peace program.

“This print sponsorship by 48HourPrint.com will help us create high-quality pamphlets, guides, posters and inspirational postcards for Pathways to Peace,” said Jeni Stepanek, Ph.D., executive director of the foundation and Stepanek’s mother. “We want to share Mattie’s message that hope is real, peace is possible and life is worthy, and do this in a tangible way that people can take with them and share with others.”

As part of the program, the Mattie J.T. Stepanek Foundation also will distribute Pathways to Peace posters and teaching tips postcards to schools and teachers across the country. A “Celebrate Peace – For Our World” poster also will include his original poem and translations of his poem into numerous languages.