Light It Up Blue on World Autism Day, April 2
The Home Depot is proud to support Autism Speaks, the world’s leading autism science and advocacy organization. The organization is becoming well known for its annual Light It Up Blue campaign to raise awareness of the growing public health concern that is autism. The 2013 World Autism Awareness Day is April 2. Iconic landmarks around the world will Light It Up Blue to show their support for the cause.
In 2010, Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus proposed that The Home Depot help Autism Speaks extend this campaign to consumers by selling specially-marked blue light bulbs in Home Depot stores throughout the United States and Canada. By shining blue lights on your porch or in your windows, you can join Autism Speaks, and landmarks around the world, in shining a light on autism.
For the 2013 Light It Up Blue campaign, The Home Depot is offering a specially-marked blue light bulb. (If you display this bulb outdoors, on your front porch, for instance, make sure the bulb in an enclosed lighting fixture.) The special light bulbs are available online, and will be available in Home Depot stores beginning March 15, 2013. The Home Depot will donate $1 from the sale of each specially marked blue light bulb to Autism Speaks.
We hope you’ll help Autism Speaks shine a light on autism by changing your home lights to the blue autism speaks bulb for the World Autism Awareness day and throughout the month of April to grow awareness of autism and autism research.
You can learn more online at the Light It Up Blue campaign web page.
I live in Salisbury,Md and the store here did not have any.. I was pretty disappointed. I ended up purchasing other blue bulbs but wished I could have bought the ones that would have donation to Autism Speaks.
I’m sorry to hear that, Stacy, and I apologize.
Could it have been a matter of the bulbs being sold out? Or were you just not able to find them? Your feedback on this could help make the program work better next year.
Thanks.
-Craig, from The Home Depot
[...] Light It Up Blue for Autism Awareness with Special Bulbs from The Home Depot (ext.homedepot.com) [...]
[...] awareness to people like Nate. And if you want to participate, Autism Speaks has partnered with Home Depot, where you will find blue light bulbs for sale; $1 of each sale is a donation to Autism [...]
[...] Light It Up Blue for Autism Awareness with Special Bulbs from The Home Depot [...]
Thank You so much for participating in this awesome cause!!!The number of children diagnosed each year is growing,the numbers are staggering!!!We need more awareness to get further programs ,research, and resources!!!!
The stores in Stockton Ca are not selling these can you tell me why?
Rachel,
I’m not sure what’s going on here. We made some inquiries at the two Home Depot stores with Stockton, California addresses. As of this morning, store #1022, 5010 Feather River Dr., had 56 of the blue bulbs on hand. Store #662, 3818 E Hammer Lane, had 20 in stock. And all Home Depot stores will have stock replenished as the Autism Speaks event continues.
Are those the stores you visited?
I’m awfully sorry you’re having trouble finding the bulbs.
-Craig, from The Home Depot
I was very happy with this campaign last year and the ease of getting the bulbs. However I have been to 3 Home Depots in the last few days and the most employees have no idea about the bulbs, and at one of the stores I was told they were placed on the clearance rack last week and were gone.. When I got home, I looked it up online and in each one of the stores it showed they had inventory. However even the manager at a store told me they did not have them . I just placed my orders online and hopefully they can find them when I walk in.
Thanks for the feedback, Shannon.
-Craig, at The Home Depot
Would you donate on any other blue bulbs? I want to purchase 4 flood lights to put in for April 2nd.
Hi, Kevin.
The donation to Autism Speaks is only for the specially marked blue light bulbs. But it’s great you want to participate. Blue flood lights sound like a great way to light your home up blue.
-Craig, from The Home Depot
We stay in India. How long does it take to deliver thebulbs/lanterns if we order for a few? we are located in Hyderabad city in India. Let me also know the unit price of the bulbs and lanterns. Also let us know the watts/power, etc.. for us to have an idea.
I’m very sorry, but The Home Depot does not ship products outside the United States.
–Craig, from The Home Depot
Thank you home depot we appriciate you
The bulbs are a novelty item. It’s nice that they’re available, but they aren’t really practical. The lanterns, on the other hand, were a fantastic, useful item, with the added bonus of the autism contribution. I was looking forward to purchasing a couple more – we already have a few, and have used them a lot during campouts and power outages, because on the blue light setting they’ll run for a couple of days continuously – but I really have no use at all for a blue light bulb.
I am very sorry you feel that way. Supporting a very worthy cause is NOT a novelty item. We bought the lantern and the blue bulb a few years ago and the bulbis used every April to “Light it Up Blue”. You do not have to throw it away after one use. Hope you change your perspective on this!
Thanks for the support, KL. It’s great how you keep your blue bulbs to display every year– sort of like Christmas decorations, no?
But I can understand where SixDegrees is coming from. I don’t think he was implying that Autism Speaks isn’t a excellent cause. He likes the (very practical) blue lantern he picked for an earlier Autism Awareness Month, and that’s great. Maybe we’ll have that lantern available again for an Autism Speaks awareness campaign in the future.
We thank you– and everyone else who has commented– for taking the time to write… and for supporting the cause.
-Craig, from The Home Depot
Thank you home depot… Our only child has ASD and we appreciate you!!!
Thank you, Home Depot, for raising awareness about autism. Posting to my FB page right now. had just posted about needing to buy bulbs for my neighbors. We purchase bulbs for neighbors on our street every year and had out a flier about our son. I’d love to share how we make our son’s world safer for him by using these blue lights!
As an employee of The Home Depot, and a parent of an Autistic Child, my family and I want to say thank you for helping raise awareness and supporting a cause very near and dear to us!
[...] light bulbs from Home Depot - Home Depot will donate $1.00 to Autism Speaks for purchase of a [...]
Will the blue light bulbs be available this year at home depot?
I have no details at the moment, but, yes, The Home Depot will be participating in the program again in 2013.
-Craig, from The Home Depot
Update– Specially marked blue light bulbs will be available for the 2013 Light It Up Blue campaign. They should be in Home Depot stores beginning March 15, 2013.
-Craig, from The Home Depot
Thank you for the update!
I am proud to say that my local Home Depot was on the ball! This is the third year that my HD has participated in and sold the blue lights for LIUB. They were hard to find the first two years, so last year I had a talk with the manager.
THIS year, the displays were right up front when you walk in the entrance door!
THANK YOU Home Depot!
Thank YOU for your comment, and for joining The Home Depot in supporting the Light It Up Blue cause.
I am glad to hear your local Home Depot responded to your concerns from last year. I’m sure the manager and the other associates there would be happy to know you liked what they did.
I’m very happy Home Depot is taking an active role in creating awareness for Autism. I learned about this by accident while online a few days ago but in time to pick up my blue bulbs at our local Home Depot in Lihue, Hawaii. The associates I spoke with didn’t know anything about it but seemed proud to have learned about it to share with others. I was disappointed that the two displays were on the ends of the lighting aisle and not in a spot that could have attracted attention. I was further disappointed that this Home Depot didn’t carry the lanterns. I agree with the comments above that the bulbs/lanterns should be available earlier in preparation for World Autism Awareness Day/Month. Home Depot should be proud of their involvement in this very worthy cause and do a little more on the local levels in advertising the event in their local ad. I’m sure all of us affected by autism would agree that we sincerely appreciate Home Depot’s role to raise awareness of Autism but would love to see them do a better job that goes along with the level of service they provide their customers and receive all the praise they deserve. Mahalo (thank you) to all who worked on this great program. Aloha!
Thank you so much for your comments, Shelly. The Home Depot is certainly pleased and proud to be part of the Light It Up Blue campaign. Thanks, too, for the critique. It’s certainly nice to hear when we’ve hit the mark, but we need to know when we didn’t do as well as we could have.
We received a lantern last night at the blue tie/jean ball. Thank you home depot. I think you need a larger supply of bulbs n lanterns in your stores. Thanks for supporting Autism!!
It’s an old show biz saying that you should always leave them wanting more– but The Home Depot isn’t in show biz, and we certainly don’t want to be under-stocked in anything, not the least in bulbs that help raise money for a good cause. Thanks for your feedback, Mike.
And thank YOU for supporting the Light It Up Blue campaign!
Got my blue lantern yesterday! Thanks Home Depot for bringing autism awareness to the forefront…it means a lot to a lot of people (my son has autism).
You’re welcome, Lee! It’s such an important issue and we’re so glad that you were able to help bring awareness to it. Thanks for the comment!
I think the Home Depot dropped the ball on this campaign. I just went to Home Depot to get my light bulbs at the Annapolis, MD store and they did not have the bulbs/lanterns and the associates had no idea what I was talking about. I’m happy to see businesses wanting to bring awareness to Autism but if the campaign isn’t executed properly I don’t see the point. The sad part is the dollar that was supposed to go to Autism Speaks will not be donated. How does Home Depot plan to resolve this?
Thank You
Shannon DeBlock
Hi, Shannon. I’m not in a position to give a detailed account of how this Light It Up Blue effort was put together. But I can say that several departments here at The Home Depot, the vendors and Autism Speaks put in a lot of work organizing this with a relatively short turn around time. There appear to have been some hitches in the process, but it is definitely worth doing.
With feedback from you and others, which we sincerely appreciate, perhaps we can learn how to make efforts like this go more smoothly.
What a great partnership! I teach an amazing group of students with autism, and HD is a store that I frequent (for home and my classroom). Thanks so much for supporting Autism Awareness!
Do you know if the lanterns will be available this year? I was told that the Defiant blue lanterns for Autism Speaks will be on sale on April 1. But I called my local store to see if they would be getting them and they had no idea what I was talking about. Thank you!!!
Yes, the Defiant blue LED lanterns will be available in stores by April 1. (The target date is March 28, actually.)
Please don’t be too hard on the Home Depot associate you spoke with. The company was still working on the arrangements for this special event as late as a couple of weeks ago, so it’s possible the information hadn’t made to all the associates at the stores when you called.
Thanks for asking. And thanks for supporting this terrific cause.
Next year they should try and get the lanterns and bulbs earlier. the day before it really not enough time for some people. just a thought!
thanks for doing this though, the autism community appreciates the support!
I hear you, Gina. And I’m pretty certain the fellow who handles the light bulb marketing would agree with you 100%.
Thanks Craig!!! The store manager I spoke with was actually very nice and checked several places before telling me he didn’t know if they were getting them or not. He then asked about autism and made sure to take my info to call me if they came in. Thank you for your help & thanks to Home Depot for supporting Autism Speaks!
Will the lantern’s be available online as well?
Thanks!
No. The bulbs and the lanterns will only be available in stores.
Next year we will be contacting Home Depot to consider listing our product which was design to “Light it up Blue” in honor of our sons journey to beat autism. The first production gets here in 6 weeks!
http://www.free-press-release.com/news-product-to-support-autism-awareness-chosen-for-walmart-s-get-on-the-shelf-contest-1331097704.html
I am requesting information to be a store level coordinator on autism.
Thanks
Charles T. Durham
Charles, I’m not quite sure what you’re asking. Maybe you should talk to the manager of the store you’re thinking of?
I’m pleased that you’re interested in the cause, though.
Love what you are doing to support the autism community! Kudos to the Home Depot for doing their part to bring awareness for autism and taking an active role in making a difference for a community who all too often doesn’t have the voice they need! Keep up the great work!
Sincerely,
James S. Vaughan, President, Families of Autism and Asperger’s Standing Together (F.A.A.S.T.), Ogden, Utah
Thank you for your kind words, James. And thank you for your dedication to helping the autism community.
Thanks for doing this again, Home Depot! This is the reason why I continue to shop here. You guys are awesome and this is such a great cause.
Matt, thanks for your comment.
I know everyone at The Home Depot is very proud to be behind this cause.