Awareness

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia –  a·ware·ness / əˈwernəs /noun knowledge or perception of a situation or fact. “we need to raise public awareness of the issue”, concern about and well-informed interest in a particular situation or development.
In general, “awareness” may also refer to public or common knowledge or understanding about a social, scientific, or political issue, and hence many movements try to foster “awareness” of a given subject, that is, “raising awareness“. Examples include AIDS awareness and Multicultural awareness.
synonyms: consciousness, recognition, realization;understanding, grasp, appreciation, knowledge, insight; familiarity; informal light-bulb moment;  formal cognizance
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April is Autism Awareness Month. April is Counseling Awareness Month.

I’m very aware of these initiatives…but I didn’t know that April is also Poetry Month and Soft Pretzel Month and…Which means I wasn’t ‘Aware.’ So, I took a look at the history of Awareness movements.

The first Awareness initiative I found was Negro Awareness Week, announced for February 1926 to coincide with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln on the 12th and Frederick Douglass on the 14th. Negro Awareness Week was created by Carter G. Woodson, historian, and supported by the Education Departments of Delaware, North Carolina and West Virginia as well as the cities of Baltimore and Washington, DC. By late 1969 Negro History Week was proposed to expand to Black History Month at Kent State University and formally celebrated as such in 1970.

Paired with and supported by education, Awareness grew in size and scope; and the concept of such initiatives became part of the fabric of our lives. Now there are thousands of featured interests noted and celebrated in single-day, week-long or month-long commemorations.

According to the healthfinder.gov the 2018 National Health Observances calendar lists more than 200 health initiatives. https://healthfinder.gov > NHO > nhoyear

While there are health issues there are also social issues, cultural issues and now even colors have a day, foods have a day, animals have a day, and on and on…

Hubspot.com offers The Ultimate Social Media Holiday Calendar for 2018 [Resource], with an entire year of #-prefixed options to celebrate. There is something for everyone.

While some are silly (fill in the blank _____) and someare sublime (fill in the blank _____), there is no shortage of opportunity to take note, to join with others and to advance Awareness of a cause…

Just a thought…