{"id":26,"date":"2026-03-16T06:00:31","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T06:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.wp.missouristate.edu\/grizzlynotes\/?p=26"},"modified":"2026-03-16T11:28:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T11:28:19","slug":"celebrate-national-autism-acceptance-day-april-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.wp.missouristate.edu\/grizzlynotes\/2026\/03\/16\/celebrate-national-autism-acceptance-day-april-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrate National Autism Acceptance Day April 2"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">April 2nd is National Autism Acceptance Day, and this year it will be officially recognized by Mayor Topliff and the City of West Plains!<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">To celebrate and support this initiative, <a href=\"https:\/\/wp.missouristate.edu\/ascend\/\">ASCEND<\/a> at Missouri State University-West Plains is encouraging local businesses to \u201cpaint the town blue.\u201d<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Show your support by:<\/div>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"x_elementToProof\">\u00a0Wearing blue April 2nd.<\/li>\n<li class=\"x_elementToProof\">\u00a0Assembling blue-themed displays for the entire month of April.<\/li>\n<li class=\"x_elementToProof\">\u00a0Getting creative to spread awareness and acceptance, whether you sell blue vehicles or blue drinks, show your support for inclusion by sending ASCEND a photo of your crew and displays to share on Facebook throughout the month of April.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">You can also show your commitment to inclusion in West Plains by ordering an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dragocollegestore.com\/ascend-fundraiser-t-shirt\">ASCEND T\u2011shirt from the Drago Bookstore<\/a> by March 20th. $10 of each shirt purchased goes directly to ASCEND to continue our commitment to neurodiverse students.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Let\u2019s come together as a community and shine a bright light on acceptance, inclusion, and support for our neurodiverse neighbors!<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><a href=\"https:\/\/wp.missouristate.edu\/ascend\/\">TJ Swift House ASCEND Program<\/a><\/div>\n<div><a href=\"mailto:AscendWP@MissouriState.edu\">AscendWP@MissouriState.edu<\/a><\/div>\n<div><a href=\"tel:+417-255-7711\">417-255-7711<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>April 2nd is National Autism Acceptance Day, and this year it will be officially recognized by Mayor Topliff and the City of West Plains! To celebrate and support this initiative, ASCEND at Missouri State University-West Plains is encouraging local businesses to \u201cpaint the town blue.\u201d Show your support by: \u00a0Wearing blue April 2nd. \u00a0Assembling blue-themed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":96,"featured_media":31,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,9,2,23],"tags":[24,25,26],"class_list":["post-26","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty","category-staff","category-students","category-tj-swift-house-ascend-program","tag-ascend","tag-autism-acceptance-week","tag-fundraiser"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.wp.missouristate.edu\/grizzlynotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.wp.missouristate.edu\/grizzlynotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.wp.missouristate.edu\/grizzlynotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.wp.missouristate.edu\/grizzlynotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/96"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.wp.missouristate.edu\/grizzlynotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.wp.missouristate.edu\/grizzlynotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.wp.missouristate.edu\/grizzlynotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26\/revisions\/32"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.wp.missouristate.edu\/grizzlynotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.wp.missouristate.edu\/grizzlynotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.wp.missouristate.edu\/grizzlynotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.wp.missouristate.edu\/grizzlynotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}