“Nico squared,” senior Nicolasa Kenney and junior Nico Carlson, are showing their commitment to Autism Awareness Month by wearing blue every day this April.

The month kicked off with a school assembly where the gym was full of blue t-shirts.

“It was pretty cool and it was pretty impactful because a lot of people actually wore blue,” Carlson said.

While many students wore blue for one day, Carlson and Kenney decided to take it a step further and wear blue all of April.

Kenney said her and Carlson were sitting in class one day when they decided to do the challenge.

“We decided that we really wanted to get the word out,” Kenney said. “So I said that we should try to wear blue every single day so we can get other people involved and so they know what autism awareness is all about.”

While it’s a great message to spread, the technical aspect of having enough blue to wear has been the difficult part for the participants.

“I had to go shopping,” Kenney said. “I try and wear accessories that are blue too so I have some kind of blue on me every day.”

Both agreed to count many different blue clothing items for the challenge. Not only shirts and shorts, but also headbands, watches and socks were valid, they said.

Not only has wearing blue every day been a symbol to others of promoting autism awareness, but Kenney said it has also made her herself think about autism and the challenges that come with it a little more every day as she puts blue clothing on.

“I’ve always been aware of autism because my cousin has it,” Kenney said. “But I think it’s gotten me more involved than what I normally have been.”

As April comes to a close, the awareness month will be over, but Kenney said people should be working to promote autism awareness year round.

“Try to get out and learn people’s’ stories about autism,” said Kenney, “because it’s actually a really big disability and a lot of people have it… and I think it’s extremely important that we learn what it is.”