Light Up The Landmarks aims to raise awareness for various medical conditions while sparking conversations in the community that initiates change. We work to bring businesses, landmarks, and bridges together with patients and non-profit organizations to raise awareness through the beauty of illuminated landmarks. We find like-minded locations with a heart for supporting a specific diseases and connect them with one or more non-profit organizations recognizing specific awareness days or months for the specified condition. The businesses light up a designated color to shine a light on the causes that mean the most to them.
2018 has been a promising year for Light Up The Landmarks as we have begun branching out beyond September’s Pain Awareness Month. Coming from humble beginnings, the initiative was born amidst a brainstorming session and creator Jaclyn Drexel knew that her idea had the potential to truly make a difference. Initially titled “light it blue,” the title didn’t reflect the magnitude of the potential Jacki recognized for her awareness initiative. Light Up The Landmarks made our official debut in 2016 when we successfully recruited a handful of participants to go BLUE in support of Pain Awareness Month.
Though 2016 started small, we have continued to evaluate and refine the process resulting in significant growth within a short period of time. Jacki took the positive and the negative feedback received to fine tune and adjust her approach to further advance the Light Up The Landmarks initiative. These adjustments led to 2018 becoming our most successful year to date. In addition to lighting over 75 locations for Pain Awareness Month 2018, we also expanded to support Migraine Awareness in June.
We look forward to continuing the develop of Light Up The Landmarks as learn and grow. We recognize the importance of bringing awareness and understand that something as simple as lighting blue, purple, orange, or any other color can be a catalyst that creates conversations and empowers the community to make a change. There are too many people suffering in silence; the truth about life with medical conditions needs to be brought into the light. Then, honest and productive conversations can be had to help others better understand the different challenges faced by warriors with various diseases.