Written by Dr. Steve Whitaker, Head of School

What children need most are the essentials that grandparents provide in abundance. They give unconditional love, Godly guidance, kindness, patience, humor, comfort, lessons in life. And, most importantly, cookies…(haha, just kidding).

Whether they go by Grandma and Grandpa, Meemaw and Peepaw, Nana and Grandpop – there’s no question that grandparents are the greatest. And it’s not just us saying it – throughout the centuries, countless proverbs and quotations have expressed the importance of grandparents in our lives and the need to cherish their wisdom, experience, and love.

Marian McQuade, a mother of 15 from West Virginia, hoped to establish a national day that would honor grandparents, and in 1970 she began a campaign to do so. McQuade raised awareness about senior citizens throughout the 1970s. In 1978, President Jimmy Carter declared the first Sunday after Labor Day to be National Grandparents Day. Each year, the president issues a proclamation to keep the tradition going. Grandparents Day has both an official flower and song. The official flower is the forget-me-not, and the song is Johnny Prill’s “A Song for Grandma and Grandpa.” Both were chosen by the National Grandparents Day Council.

September 9, 2018, was the official date that Grandparents Day was celebrated this year. At The First Academy, we look forward to celebrating our grandparents on Friday, October 5. While we will honor grandparents from all of our divisions, we will welcome our Lower School grandparents to campus for classroom visits beginning at 8:00am and a special presentation at 9:45am. If you are a Lower School grandparent and are unable to attend this special event on October 5, we will be live streaming the morning beginning at 9:45 am HERE, or via Facebook Live on our Facebook page.

At TFA, we are so grateful for our parents and grandparents and the partnership that we have with them in raising Christian leaders who will be devoted Christ followers, committed servant leaders, respectful relationship builders, consistently honest communicators, and relentlessly hard workers. We can’t wait to celebrate all of our grandparents on Friday, October 5!