About

Light It Up Red for 1in5 was started on September 11, 2014. It all began when we saw this photo of the RSA Tower in Montgomery, AL and became inspired...

Photo courtesy of Christie Aitken at Roundtable Solutions


It was taken in 2013 when Roundtable Solutions got the tower to light up in red for the first time ever for Dyslexia Day. We were instantly brought to tears when we saw the photo of it glowing in red. It touched our hearts in a way that cannot be explained. Finally, someone was recognizing the struggles that our babies have faced every day of their lives. We began to talk about how amazing it was to see this happening and thought about how great it would be if this was just the beginning of things to come. Then it hit us - WE have to do something!

Looking back, the rest of the conversation we had that night is kind of a blur. We can't even remember how it started or who thought of what. Before we knew it an idea had just come to us. Within five minutes we had not only decided to make a Facebook page for our idea but we had even come up with a title for it and big plans for how we could get others involved. We both got to work as soon as we hung up and by morning Light It Up Red for 1in5 was up and running.


We really didn't expect our efforts to get very far. We thought that perhaps we would gain the support of some of our Facebook friends and that would be it. Still, we had to try. We knew that somebody had to start somewhere and that somebody might as well be us. We decided that even if we didn't take this any farther than our own (very small) hometowns, we would still consider it worth the effort.

We were shocked and overwhelmed with joy when our page received 100 "likes" less than 10 hours after we created it! Decoding Dyslexia-ALA supported us by sharing our link on their Facebook page. Soon other Decoding Dyslexia pages in neighboring states had agreed to pass our link on as well. Before long we had even been contacted by Roundtable Solutions and asked to come on board with them and join their efforts. We also gained the support of many Facebook pages that we are fans of who agreed to "Go Red" with us on 10/15/14 by changing their cover photos and profile pictures for the day. We watched as more and more people shared our link and within 3 days we had made it to 10 states!


This has already become SO much bigger than we ever imagined it would be. People have agreed to wear red shirts and burn red lights outside their homes for Dyslexia Day this year. Schools, businesses, and volunteer fire departments have gotten on board as well. We can't wait to see what the next few weeks have in store and hope to see the entire nation Light It Up Red for 1in5 on Dyslexia Day 2014!





No comments:

Post a Comment