In celebration of Autism Awareness Day, Autism Speaks U Stanford hosted a series of events throughout the day on Thursday to allow the student body to show support for individuals around the world affected by autism and their families.

According to Autism Speaks U Stanford’s president Spencer Savitz ’17, Autism Speaks U Stanford is a new student organization seeking to spread awareness of autism spectrum disorders and raise funds for Autism Speaks, the world’s largest autism science and advocacy organization.

On Thursday, the Wilbur, Stern and Florence Moore dining halls were decorated blue and served blue dessert, since blue is the official color of autism awareness. In addition, there were trivia games and autism-related prizes at White Plaza and at Arrillaga Dining.

Every year Autism Speaks organizes the worldwide Light It Up Blue campaign in which approximately 10,000 buildings across all seven continents will be lit blue. Autism Speaks U Stanford is participating by lighting up the four corners lights of Hoover Tower blue for two weeks, starting last Thursday night.

“Our hope from all of these events is to make students more aware of autism, to educate everyone a little bit about the Autism Spectrum and to introduce everyone to our chapter,” Savitz said. “We want to provide everyone with the environment and resources to feel comfortable talking about autism, a topic that is very rarely heard about on Stanford’s campus, even though one in every 68 children born today is diagnosed.”

An earlier version of this article incorrectly said that the lights would be on for only one week, not two. We apologize for this error.

Contact Stephanie Zhang at szhang3 ‘at’ stanford.edu.