2008-09-11

Grandparents Day event celebrates the generations

By Jane Seo
Enterprise staff writer
Courtesy: The Davis Enterprise

Jan Hillyer couldn't have chosen a better way to begin the Grandparents Day at Atria Covell Gardens than by reading a poem that captures the valuable relationship shared between grandparents and their grandchildren.

"Grandparents bestow upon their grandchildren the strength and wisdom that time and experience have given them," Hillyer, an engaged life assistant, read from the anonymous poem. "Grandchildren bless their grandparents with a youthful vitality and innocence that help them stay young at heart forever."

Atria Covell Gardens set the jovial stage for Sunday for Grandparents Day. People of all ages — from preschoolers to the elderly — gathered at 1111 Alvarado Ave. for its first such event.

Several presentations filled the agenda. In addition to a poem recital by Hillyer, the Gypsy Fiddlers from Davis Waldorf School performed 13 vibrant tunes from Russia, Sweden, Romania and Hungary.

These 15 musicians, all decked in purple, blue and green patterned skirts and vests, fiddled their violins and strummed their guitars. Soon, the upbeat music filled the large, chandelier-lit hall. No matter the age, visitors and the residents instinctively tapped their feet and nodded their heads in with the beat.

According to Hillyer, the main goal of this Grandparents Day is to bring people from the community to honor grandparents.

The event also kicked off the adopt-a-grandparent program, in which children from the local community foster grandparents as their companions. The children and their adopted grandparents visit each other, share life experiences and enjoy pre-planned activities throughout the year.

The adopt-a-grandparent program builds alliances between the generations and helps reduce the loneliness experienced by residents who don't have family members living close by.

"It was delightful seeing younger people," Mary Clare Kitchen, 87, said. "The program is something I'd like to see continue for a long time."

Elise Wainscott, who has family members dispersed throughout the country, including Wyoming and Colorado, thinks such programs are valuable "especially to those who don't have relatives around us," she said.

This year marked the 30th anniversary of the national Grandparents Day, celebrated on the first Sunday after Labor Day. Grandparents Day started in 1973 by Marian McQuade, a mother of 15 and grandmother of 40.

Her primary motivation for launching the special day was "to champion the cause of lonely elderly in nursing homes," according to its Web site, www.grandparents-day.com. She wanted grandchildren to benefit from the wisdom and heritage of their grandparents through interaction. McQuade's vision bloomed to full fruition in 1978 when President Jimmy Carter signed a bill designating the Sunday after Labor Day as Grandparents Day.

And ever since, the day has brought millions of children and their grandparents closer, each gaining wisdom and vivacity from the other's experience.

Just as fitting it was in commencing Grandparents Day, the poem concludes the event as suitably. "Together (the grandparents and their grandchildren) create a chain of love linking the past with the future. The chain may lengthen, but it will never part."