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Boys' Deeds Earn Honors

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By KEITH MORELLI, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 8, 2007

TAMPA - Two local boys, each with a cause, are getting national recognition: a Palm Harbor youth named CNN's Viewers' Choice winner this week and a Valrico lad in line for a Butterfly Award.

Each honor includes a $25,000 check.

Pat Pedraja, 12, of Palm Harbor, won the Viewers' Choice Young Wonders Award handed out by the CNN Heroes contest. The presentation was made at a nationally telecast ceremony in New York on Thursday night.

Pat's mission was to sign up 2,007 bone marrow donors this year from across the nation. He got more than 5,000. Pat, who is being treated for leukemia, was among about 7,000 people entered in the contest from nearly 100 countries.

His charitable effort took him to more than 30 cities across the nation and raised more than $100,000 for donor tissue tests.

To raise money, Pat sold advertising on his donated motor home and on his head, which was bald because of chemotherapy.

On his Web site, Pat says he heard about the shortage of bone marrow donors, particularly for minorities, after a friend died because she couldn't get a bone marrow match.

"That made me so sad and I want to do something to help," he wrote on his Web page. "I am part Hispanic and am scared that if I need a bone marrow transplant one day there may not be a match available for me."

Pat's mother, Claudine Andrews, said her son could not come to the phone Friday afternoon because he was feeling ill from a chemotherapy treatment Wednesday.

She said her family was leaving New York on Friday afternoon, eager to get home.

"He won the CNN Viewers' Choice award," Andrews said proudly. "It's a big deal." She said 35 other nominees were featured on television and online and voted on by viewers for two months. About 250,000 votes were cast, she said.

"This is such a great honor," Andrews said. "A lot of people have been inspired by him."

Across the Bay, in eastern Hillsborough County, Zach Bonner is a semifinalist for the Butterfly Award, offered through the Volvo for Life foundation.

Zach turned 10 on his long walk from Seffner to Tallahassee last month, a march to raise money for homeless children. The trip was 280 miles and began Nov. 3. It ended the Monday before Thanksgiving.

Through heat and some cold, the hardest part, he said, was in pouring rain. Undeterred, he donned his rain suit and kept walking, he said.

His determination to help worthy causes has earned him a shot at the Butterfly Award. Zach is asking for votes on his Web site, www.littleredwagon foundation.com. He says the money will "fund our projects. I could do so much good with that money."

Each year, the award is given to an "exceptional child hero," according to the Volvo for Life Web site. It is open to children younger than 16. The winner and a guest will attend the awards ceremony in New York on March 19. Zach is one of 10 semifinalists. If he makes it into the finals, he will be assured a $10,000 award. To vote, go to www.volvoforlife awards.com. Voting is open until Jan. 7.

Zach got the idea for his walk about a year ago after watching a documentary about Mildred Norman Ryder, the "Peace Pilgrim," who walked more than 25,000 miles over nearly three decades. But it was a resolution that Congress passed in August making November the nation's National Homeless Youth Awareness Month that pushed Zach toward the walk to Tallahassee.

Zach's walk raised awareness of youth homelessness, along with about $25,000 in donations and supplies.

"It was hard, but it was worth it," he said Friday. "It was neat, and I got to meet a lot of neat people and all that."

Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760 or kmorelli@tampatrib.com.

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