Airboaters for Autism 2025 Light It Up Blue

This year marked a huge milestone for Airboaters for Autism Awareness. While it was only our 9th event due to Covid, it was our 10th year as a nonprofit.

-  Reilly Pelkey & Shelby Mull

Airboaters for Autism was founded 10 years ago after Tad Pelkey built a boat dedicated to his son, Clayton, with Autism Spectrum Disorder. After a great response to the boat at the 2016 Palm Beach and Broward County Airboat Shows, Tad’s family hosted a Light It Up Blue event at the Schmidt's Naked Lady Camp in the Everglades Area 2A on World Autism Awareness Day (April 2).

The Pelkeys suspended and lit up a 44 foot long puzzle piece in the water, a long time symbol of Autism Awareness. The puzzle piece has different meanings for different families and organizations, but for them the puzzle piece represented the complexity that is Autism. No two people with Autism are the same and no two families are impacted the same way.

A few years in, the Pelkeys started adding a red heart to the middle of their puzzle piece for Light It Up Blue. This represented the families directly that are affected by an Autism diagnosis and promotes the acceptance of Autism. Nowadays, April can be considered Autism Awareness and Autism Acceptance Month. We prefer to honor awareness, acceptance, inclusion, education, and advocacy.

Over the last nine events, we have been able to donate approximately $130,000 across Florida. From Escambia County all the way to Monroe, Airboaters for Autism has made a difference in the state’s ESE classrooms, autism employment programs, and communities. This year alone we are tracking what looks to be our biggest year yet with grants totaling about $40,000.