Light It Up Blue

Many months throughout the year are dedicated to certain things. For example, February is marked as Black History Month and October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Since Autism now affects so many families worldwide, Autism too has its own month dedicated to the cause. April is National Autism Awareness Month. Although awareness and advocacy for the cause is always going on, April is dedicated to shine a bigger light on it. April 2 is marked worldwide as Autism Awareness Day.

 

The slogan that is used for Autism Awareness Month is “Light It Up Blue”. Light It Up Blue was started by the Autism Speaks Organization and is now used worldwide to advocate for Autism. They use the color blue because that was determined to be the National Autism color.  Blue was chosen as the color because Autism Spectrum Disorders are 5 times more common in boys than in girls, and blue is the national color for a boy.

Spread The Word

 There are many ways to join and help spread the message of Light It Up Blue. To date over 63,366 people have joined Autism Speaks to help shine a light and raise awareness. You can too by going to the website and clicking Join Now. Along with just joining the website, throughout the whole month of April you can donate and sign a petition that helps develop more resources for autism. There is even a Light It Up Blue app for your smart phone.

 

Some of the best ways to help show your support for Light It Up Blue is through purchasing merchandise and on social media. The Organization sells everything from car stickers, notebooks, mugs and shopping bags to all types of clothing. Everyone looks at what people are wearing, so buying an article of clothing could be a great way to ensure that many people will see awareness for autism. Follow this link to start shopping. Another great way to raise awareness is to change your profile picture on your social media sites during the month of April. The Autism Speaks website provides instructions on how to use the Light It Up Blue logo on your social media site. Follow this link to view the different options.

 

On National Autism Awareness Day many buildings throughout the world will shine blue lights on their building to show their support for Autism. The most iconic image to show this illustration, is when the top of the Empire State Building lights up blue. You can even turn your own home blue through special lights that you can purchase at Home Depot. Home Depot is one of many organizations that supports autism and for a complete list of organizations follow this link. It looks so cool to see buildings turn blue for autism.

 

Throughout April, many autism events both nationally and locally occur. For example, in Knoxville where I am from there are dances and fundraisers held and then even some local restaurants will give a portion of their April proceeds to an autism society. Check out the Autism Speaks website and your local autism society’s website to see what is going on around you.

 

April is always a great month for the autism community. Check out this video to see how last years Light It Up Blue campaign went and how the world celebrated Autism Awareness Month. For example, many buildings throughout the world turned blue, the MLB and NBA partnered with autism and some athletes wore special uniforms, and Barack Obama even turned the oval office blue. Hopefully 2014’s Autism Awareness Month will go just as great!

 

Sources:

http://lightitupblue.org/Markslist/home.do

http://www.examiner.com/article/april-is-autism-awareness-month-7