Gaithersburg Middle School steps up fundraising efforts for Autism Awareness Month

On April 1, the world lit it up blue.

The Empire State Building in New York, the CN Tower in Toronto, the Kingdom Tower in Saudi Arabia and other landmarks across the globe displayed bright blue lights, all in an effort to build awareness for an important cause.

The global display kicked off World Autism Awareness Day, a day dedicated to fundraising and raising awareness about the condition that affects millions of people across the world.

For the city of Gaithersburg, that day kicks off Autism Awareness Month; 30 days dedicated to raising the public’s awareness of aAutism.

And Gaithersburg Middle School has been among those who have led the charge. A group of teachers have been raising money all month to help pay for awareness-raising events around the school and the city, selling t-shirts which have puzzle pieces on the front and readsay “Light it up blue” on the back.

For Tom Rowse—whose son, Gregory, is autistic and a student at GMS—the efforts of those teachers are a necessary response to an issue that’s been growing for years.

“Something is going on,” Rowse said. “We got to put all our big brains together and figure this thing out.”

Montgomery County Public Schools have one of the best autistic teaching programs in the country, and Rowse said there are people who specifically move there simply to get their kids enrolled in it. There are two classes at Gaithersburg Middle School, and they each have one teacher and two para-educators for a room of just six students, giving each child ample attention.

“The focus on children with autism [in this county] is tremendous,” Rowse said. “My hat is off to the school the school system, my hat is off to the teachers.”

So it comes as no surprise that those teachers are at the forefront of raising awareness for the cause. The school holds what it calls “community outings” every week, and the t-shirt sales go toward supporting these events.

The community outings are usually events designed to help students in the middle school interact with their autistic classmates, and Rowse said. s Tthe teachers and students will wear the t-shirts when they participate in the 2013 Walk Now for Autism Speaks in Washington this November.

“It’s so important that these young people understand, or at least grasp that these people are different,” Rowse said. “[It helps] to get them integrated with the normal children, so that they can experience some normalcy.”

The students have bought into the cause, too. The school had its “Light it up blue” day on April 16—Gregory’s birthday—and Rowse said everyone who had bought a t-shirt wore it that day, and all the students who didn’t still wore blue.

“It was just a nice experience,” Rowse he saiud. “Kids are really showing support for their classmates. And building that camaraderie is important.”

It’s all in effort to get the school’s autistic students treated with respect and acceptance. The numbers are on the rise, Rowse said, and it’s important for everyone to understand autism and be aware of it.

The fundraiser at Gaithersburg Middle School is just one small step. But every small step is one one step closer to having a global autism awareness.

“Each child is different,” Rowse said. “That’s why we need to shed a light, cast a pale on it and say, ‘Hey, look at these people. Try to understand and accept.’”