BowTies are Back: Easter Seals and BowTie Cause Celebrate "BowTie Friday" on June 15 Colorful BowTies Support Kids at Risk for Disabilities

CHICAGO, June 14, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, Easter Seals is celebrating Father's Day and helping kids with disabilities by…wearing BowTies?! Easter Seals is partnering with BowTie Cause, an organization launched in 2010 by former NFL Linebacker Dhani Jones to challenge others to rock a BowTie for a cause they believe in. The official Father's Day BowTie was created to raise awareness around Easter Seals Make the First Five Count®, a program that's all about identifying disabilities, autism and other developmental delays within the first five years of life.

(Logo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110401/MM76153LOGO )

BowTie Buzz
Easter Seals supporters and on-air media personalities across the country, including FOX News' MLB writer Ken Rosenthal, are creating buzz by sporting the ties for "BowTie Friday," June 15, 2012. Tune in June 16 for the Red Sox-Cubs MLB on FOX Baseball Night in America Game of the Week—Rosenthal will showcase the Make the First Five Count tie and remind fathers, mothers and grandparents to track their child's development using an online screening tool available for free on MaketheFirstFiveCount.org. 

"Easter Seals is excited for this fun, creative outlet to start conversations about early intervention," said James E. Williams, Jr., president and chief executive officer, Easter Seals. "By working with BowTie Cause, we can raise awareness of Brookes Publishing's Ages and Stages Questionnaires®, an online screening tool available at MaketheFirstFiveCount.org for free with CVS Caremark's support, and support for the critical services needed by young children with developmental delays and autism."

Why the Tie?
Early identification and services are key for every kid's success. Every year, more than one million children with unidentified disabilities and developmental delays enter school with learning and health issues that have a lasting, negative effect on their ability to meet their full potential. Healthy, happy kids ready to enter school on par with their peers and set to learn –what better Father's Day gift is there?

You can help:

• Wear your BowTie to spread awareness about the importance of early identification and early intervention services for kids with disabilities
• Encourage all dads, moms, grandparents and caregivers to visit MaketheFirstFiveCount.org www.makethefirstfivecount.org for a free, online developmental screening to track their child's progress and development
• Tweet a picture of you in your BowTie to @Easter_Seals and use #MFFC. Other important handles: @DhaniJones, @BowTieCause, @Ken_Rosenthal and @BowTieCEO

If you love the BowTie style, you can order your very own BowTie on MaketheFirstFiveCount.org or visit BowTie Cause.org to learn more.

About BowTie Cause
BowTie Cause provides an avenue for people to support individuals and organizations they believe in by rockin' a signature BowTie. BowTie Cause hopes that each BowTie serves as a catalyst for conversation while creating a meaningful impact for others. The organization launched in May 2010, after former Cincinnati Bengals linebacker and BowTie Cause Founder Dhani Jones' friend was recovering from Stage 4 Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. "My friend challenged me. He said, 'If you want to be somebody, you gotta rock a BowTie,' and I had been searching for a way to support him.  [Wearing BowTies] was my opportunity to support him and his battle. It has turned out to be a great platform for me to tell his story of perseverance, resilience, and survival," said Jones.  "I hope organizations like Easter Seals realize increased awareness of their causes and valuable programs like Make the First Five Count®." Visit www.bowtiecause.org to learn more.

About Easter Seals
Easter Seals is the leading non-profit provider of services for individuals with autism, developmental disabilities, physical disabilities and other special needs.  For more than 90 years, we have been offering help and hope to children and adults living with disabilities, and to the families who love them. Through therapy, training, education and support services, Easter Seals creates life-changing solutions so that people with disabilities can live, learn, work and play. Easter Seals' Make the First Five Count is designed to give children at risk of developmental delays, disabilities or autism the right support they need to be school-ready and build a foundation for a lifetime of learning. Learn more at www.MaketheFirstFiveCount.org.

CONTACTS: Kristen Barnfield, @BarnfieldK, +1-312-551-7147, [email protected]; or Rachel Talen, @rtalen, +1-312-551-7246, [email protected], both of Easter Seals

SOURCE Easter Seals