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UMass Medical School ‘lighting it up blue’ for autism awareness on April 2

Community-wide celebration features family-friendly food, fun and activities

March 23, 2018
  Light it up blue at UMass Medical School
 

The ninth annual Autism Awareness and Acceptance event is hosted by UMass Medical School, UMass Memorial Health Care and Autism Resource Central.

Since 2010, the Shriver Center for Developmental Disabilities and the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry at UMass Medical School have joined with thousands of institutions and individuals across the globe to shine bright blue lights in honor of the millions of individuals and families affected by autism.

The annual “Light it Up Blue” Autism Awareness and Acceptance Celebration for Central and Western Massachusetts will take place in the Albert Sherman Center at UMass Medical School on Monday, April 2, from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Activities, refreshments and entertainment will culminate in blue illumination of the medical school façade at 7:45 p.m.

Family-friendly activities at the event, which is free and open to the public, include drumming, a community theater performance, yoga, karate and face painting. Representatives from community agencies will be on hand to provide information about the services they offer.

Safety for children with autism spectrum disorder will also be front and center, with the UMass Police Department providing fingerprint and identification kits for children attending the event. Officers from local first responder agencies, as well as canine members of the Worcester Police Department K-9 unit, will be on hand to meet with families and friends. Visitors will have the opportunity to be photographed with first responders, and tour police cruisers and emergency response vehicles. 

In addition to activities taking place between 5:30 and 8 p.m., there will be a series of “Ted Talks” on autism awareness and acceptance taking place from 4 to 5:15 p.m. UMMS faculty will deliver with 15-minute talks about the latest developments in autism research and clinical care. 

The event is hosted by UMass Medical School, UMass Memorial Health Care and Autism Resources, Inc. For additional Light it Up Blue event information, visit: https://shriver.umassmed.edu/liub.

Autism Awareness and Acceptance “Ted Talks”
Albert Sherman Center Multi-Purpose Room AS1-2130, 4 to 5:15 p.m.

“Broccoli Sprouts in ASD: clues to cures”
Andrew Zimmerman, MD, professor of pediatrics

“The quest for a biological test to measure outcomes in Fragile X”
Jean Frazier, MD, the Robert M. and Shirley S. Siff Chair in Autism, professor of psychiatry
and executive director of the E. K. Shriver Center

“A new interactive test for the early identification of autism”
Roula Choueiri, MD, associate professor of pediatrics in the Division of Developmental Pediatrics

“Best Practice: clinicians and researchers working together!”
Mary Beth Kadlec, ScD, assistant professor of psychiatry
and program director of the Center for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders

“Is there hope for developing medications that target core features of autism?”
David Cochran, MD, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry in the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry