Colors for a Cause

Adding colored light to people’s everyday environment is a powerful way to bring attention to your cause. Whether it’s something dramatic like changing the Sydney Harbor Bridge red for World Aids Day or something more subtle like adding purple gelled candles into windows along the route of an upcoming cancer walk , changing the color of a building or landmark gets people to pay attention.

That’s why we’re proud to announce that this year, Roscolux 68 Parry Sky Blue and Roscolux 80 Primary Blue have been announced by Autism Speaks as the official color filter of Light It Up Blue - their annual, event to raise autism awareness that’s happening on April 2nd. Buildings and landmarks all over the world will soon be installing our color filters on their lights in a global effort to support Autism Speaks.

The Paris Stock Exchange lit up blue helps raise Parisian autism awareness

The biggest challenge to getting buildings and landmarks lit up blue is informing the operations staff responsible for turning the lights blue what to buy and how to install it. So, this year we asked our network of Rosco dealers to join our efforts in support of this campaign, not only with stock of product and their knowledge of how to install it on hot lights, but also with a $250 donation to Autism Speaks – we were thrilled when a number of our dealers said yes! Some dealers even shared stories of how the autism spectrum has affected them personally, such as Suzanne Levitt at Parlights using Light It Up Blue to introduce her son’s classmates to autism or NLFX Professional’s Bradley Olson who, despite his autism, creates and manages their powerful website.

Profile on NLFX's Bradley Olson on LPTV for Autism Awareness Month 2010

Rosco continues to support causes through colored light with its Rosco Gives Back filters:
• Roscolux #313 Light Relief Yellow: Supports Light Relief, a charity established by and for the entertainment lighting industry, to help in times of extreme hardship.
• Roscolux #359 Medium Violet: Supports Behind the Scenes, an organization that provides financial support to entertainment technology industry professionals when they are ill or injured.
• Roscolux #361 Hemsley Blue: Helps fund the Gilbert Hemsley Lighting Programs, which provides internship opportunities and portfolio reviews for young lighting designers.

A portion of the profits generated from all three of these gels is donated to their respective organizations. In fact – recently, we handed out the donation checks to both the Hemsley Lighting Programs at their annual Hemsley Portfolio Review on March 16th and to ESTA’s Behind The Scenes while we were at USITT in Milwaukee this past weekend.

Rosco's Mark Engel presents our 2013 Hemsley Lighting Program donation to Mark Stanley

We’ve always said that changing the color of the light was the easiest and least expensive to way to dramatically affect the action on stage or camera. Now, we can also begin to say that changing the color of the lights around us causes dramatic action in our communities - and we’re proud to be a part of it.