Teal
As the day winds down, be you mother or not, take a look to
the east. From the high tops of my town you can see the Empire State Building. The building has been lit up in a variety
of colors for a variety of reasons and on this Mother’s Day it will be lit up
in teal.
Why teal? If you’ve
read any of my teal pumpkin posts (http://www.myveronanj.com/2017/10/30/the-color-of-halloween/),
you may remember that teal is the color for food allergy awareness. May 13th starts the beginning of
Food Allergy Awareness week.
The Empire State Building is not the only landmark that will
be raising awareness with teal light. If
you happen to be in West Virginia check out the Elk River Bridge. In Oklahoma the Skydance Bridge will be awash
in teal on the 13th. The
Orlando Eye will turn teal on the 18th as well the Mercedes-Benz
Superdome in New Orleans. But there are
many, many more. (A complete listing can
be found: https://www.turnitteal.org/?tr=y&auid=16690449).
my town has progressed over the years (decades?) when it comes to food
allergies. While no parent who has a
child with food allergies will ever feel completely relaxed when it comes food
issues, we know that all our schools are well educated in the issue. (Something that was not the case when I went
through the school system back in the 1970s and 80s.) Public education on food allergies really
came into its own in the 1990s with Food Allergy Awareness week being created
in 1998 by the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (now Food Allergy
Research & Education: FARE) which itself
was only 7 years old.
While we have a long way to go when it comes to education
(something that becomes very obvious every time I dine out: https://bfthsboringblog.blogspot.com/2017/11/from-scratch.html),
never in my wildest dreams as a child would I have imagined an entire week
being dedicated to food allergy awareness.
To have the Empire State Building aglow in teal light as a
reminder? Impossible!
But it’s not. Take a
moment to look east this evening and know that step by step and year by year
our community, our country and our world becomes better educated about food
allergies. Know that research is being
done to make future generations safer.
Who knows? Maybe someday food
allergies will be a thing of the past.
Impossible? With education,
nothing is.
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