Merrick Ave. Middle School 'lights it up blue' for autism awareness

If you happened to notice a lot of people wearing blue shirts last week, it wasn’t a coincidence. April 2, recognized internationally as World Autism Awareness Day, was also Light it Up Blue Day, a global initiative to spread autism awareness.

Many national landmarks were bathed in blue lights to support the cause, including the Empire State Building, the Sydney Opera House in Australia, the Canton Tower in China, the Cairo Tower in Egypt and the Paris Stock Exchange. Locally, the Theodore Roosevelt Executive and Legislative Building in Mineola was lit up in blue to mark the occasion.

Students and faculty at Merrick Avenue Middle School, in the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District, sold blue bracelets during lunch periods to raise funds for Autism Speaks, the world’s largest autism advocacy organization. The school raised $500, according to Brian Resnick, a guidance counselor.

“It was very successful,” Resnick said, adding that the fundraiser was promoted by the student council and the Builders Club. “Everybody looked at this as an opportunity to learn more, be more involved and support each other.”

The fundraiser was conceived by 13-year-old Michael Giangregorio, a seventh-grader at Merrick Avenue whose younger brother, Nicholas, has autism. “The school really needed to know about Autism Awareness Day,” said Michael. “There’s a handful of kids who have autism in the school, and they need to know that it’s not right to laugh at them.”

Autism is a spectrum of neurological disorders that affect normal brain function, including the development of communication and social skills. According to Autism Speaks, 1 in 88 children in the U.S. is diagnosed with autism.

There are no medical tests that diagnose the disorder, and there is no known direct cause, though research suggests that genetics and gene-environment interactions play a role.

Alison Giangregorio and her husband, Michael, who live in Merrick, have focused on raising awareness of autism ever since Nicholas was diagnosed when he was 20 months old. Now 11, Nicholas remains nonverbal.