Clinton Brown, Age 14 (Continued)

Clinton Brown was chosen to carry the Olympic torch after President Clinton, around the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. “I felt proud to wear the red, white, and blue,” he says. “Passing the flame is like passing the U. S. coat of honor. There’s a sense of brotherhood, a sense of nationalism.”

Clinton was born with diastrophic dysplasia, a rare form of dwarfism. “That means when my bones grow, they twist.” In the true sense of brotherhood, Clinton redirects the spotlight. “If it hadn’t been for Dr. Kopits, who devotes his entire life to helping people with dwarfism and skeletal dysplasia, I probably would have died before my eleventh birthday.”

Clinton Brown’s Advice: “Hundreds of children are given the gift of a better life, one that is worthwhile, all because one man cares. I believe we all have a destiny or some purpose in life. If we all had a person like Dr. Kopits in our lives, we all would be better people.”
(Hicksville, New York: 1996)