Light It Up Blue for Autism Awareness

In honor of World Autism Awareness Day, Berkeley Township is joining the international community by “lighting it up blue” tonight.

Blue lights have been installed at the municipal building and recreation center, said Councilman Carmen F. Amato Jr., who was instrumental in seeing that the township participates in the event.

 “We encourage all residents to wear blue clothing and feature the Light It up Blue logo on their Facebook profile,” Amato said.

 “This is a worldwide movement lead by the Autism awareness group Autism Speaks," he said. "Their website urges citizens to light up the world in blue as a great way to raise further awareness for the autism community."

Autism Speaks and Home Depot have teamed up to sell blue light bulbs for the event, he said.

 Buildings across North America and the world, including the Empire State Building in New York City and the CN Tower in Toronto, Canada, are all turning their lights blue.

The United Nations declared April 2 World Autism Awareness Day four years ago “in order to increase and develop world knowledge of autism,” according to a press release.

“By bringing together autism organizations all around the world, we will give a voice to the millions of individuals worldwide who are undiagnosed, misunderstood and looking for help,” the release states.

Autism affects one in every 110 children and 1 in 70 boys, according to the Autism Speaks website.

Autism is defined as a developmental disability that is the result of a neurological disorder that impacts development in social interaction and communication skills.

Autism is a general term used to describe a group of complex developmental brain disorders known as Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD).

The other pervasive developmental disorders are PDD-NOS (Pervasive Developmental Disorder – Not Otherwise Specified), Asperger's Syndrome, Rett Syndrome and Childhood Disintegrative Disorder.

For more information visit www.autismspeaks.org.