Steven Stamkos, St. Joseph's Children's Hospital Honor Heroic Kids

From officials at St. Joseph's Children's Hospital:

On March 27, Tampa Bay Lightning Center Steven Stamkos and St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital will recognize a record number of boys and girls from Hillsborough, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas and Polk counties during the 16th Annual Kids Are Heroes awards ceremony at the Tampa Bay Times Forum in downtown Tampa.

During a six-week nomination period, parents, teachers, guidance counselors and neighbors submitted stories highlighting heroic and selfless deeds of 170 children ages 5 to 18 throughout our community.

In January, former Tampa Bay Lightning Team Captain Dave Andreychuk and ThunderBug helped hospitalized kids at St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital choose winners in three age categories.

Now it’s time to honor these young heroes during a special night set for all nominees and their families. Emcee Jack Harris will pay tribute to each hero by sharing their story of good citizenship. Guests will enjoy dinner and live entertainment during the awards ceremony.

St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital will present every child nominated for Kids Are Heroes with a trophy, and the winners in each age category will receive additional special gifts.

Since 1996, St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital has recognized more than 1,400 children between the ages 5 and 18 who have performed heroic deeds or displayed acts of selflessness and good citizenship.

Some examples of past winners include children who have pulled an accident victim from a burning car, saved a sibling from a dog attack, donated their time or money to a charitable organization, befriended a special needs student in their classroom, donated their hair to make wigs for cancer patients and called 911 to help their relative suffering from a heart attack.