If you feel like you’ve seen cause awareness ribbons everywhere over the last few years, you’re not alone.
When I was working on this week’s feature about Easton Chandler and the Tampa Bay Bats, I wanted to know why the official colors of Down Syndrome awareness were blue and yellow. I’ve seen a ton of ribbons for a ton of different things, but wasn’t sure exactly how those colors came to be associated with those causes. So, I did a quick Google search and: whoa.
There are a lot — and I mean a lot — more cause awareness ribbons out there than I thought. There are so many that causes have had to share colors, combine two or three together, or in some cases, opt for prints instead of straight-up colors. (Autism awareness has a puzzle-print ribbon.)
We’ve seen ribbons and colors used to raise awareness around Plant City every so often, with one big example being the Strawberry Crest High girls basketball team. They wore purple socks to help player Aliyah Gregory’s anti-domestic violence campaign.
Blue and yellow, serve three purposes (that I found): Down Syndrome awareness, Thoracic Outlet Syndrome awareness and designated driving. I always thought of the latter being symbolized by a glass of water, but I digress.
I also looked for the reasons why these colors were chosen, but all I found was someone on Yahoo! Answers spitballing a guess as to why those colors were picked. Even the official website of Down Syndrome awareness, ndss.org, has nothing.
Maybe it’s because of my background in design, but I’m just used to certain colors and symbols being used for specific reasons. And other causes, such as AIDS awareness and research, do incorporate symbolism into the imagery and provide such information on their websites.
So I called the National Down Syndrome Society offices in pursuit of an answer. Here’s what I found:
When the Buddy Walk fundraising program started 21 years ago, in 1995, blue and yellow were the colors used for all of the visual elements. Over time, as NDSS and the Buddy Walk grew, people involved simply continued to use those colors.
“They just kind of became the colors of the community,” Mark Priceman, vice president of communications and marketing, says.
According to Priceman, I was the first person who had ever asked him about the colors. I guess that old saying, “You learn something new every day,” was true for all parties involved.
I was a little bummed to hear that there’s no symbolic meaning behind the blue and yellow, because those stories can sometimes be cool to hear, but it’s small potatoes.
The value of the work done by the NDSS and the Down Syndrome communities outweighs the value of giving a set of colors something more to represent. Saying, “This is just who we are,” is perfect with me.
