1. Active Retirement Week
18th to 24th June 2013
THEME
“Getting to Know You”
Monday LAUNCH
Bring a Friend to your Local ARA
Tuesday Ask the Expert
Wednesday In-store ARI Stands
Thursday Annual Awards Ceremony
Friday Regional Fun Day - Mid Summer Madness
Saturday
Sunday
As the Expert
Health & Fitness
Know your rights
In-store ARI Stands
Where’s your local group?
Awareness
Membership increase
Corporate Partners
Supervalu
Flora pro.activ
Specsavers
SHAWS
Media Partners
Irish Times
RTE Radio 1
3. Goals and Benefits
As you're planning your Grandparents Day event, keep
these goals and benefits in mind:
Give children an opportunity to show their
appreciation and love for their grandparents (or other
significant older people in their lives).
Give grandparents an opportunity to show their love
and caring for their grandchildren.
Create "a memory" – an enjoyable, memorable
experience for children and their grandparents.
Honor older adults and give them validation in their
role of grandparent (or "grandfriend" or mentor).
Grandparents need to know that they are making a
difference in the lives of younger generations.
Give older adults a chance to share some of their life
experiences with their own grandchildren and other
children, and expose children to the information and
guidance older people can offer. Older people want to
make a difference in the lives of those that follow. A
sense of legacy is a basic human need.
Make children and adults – especially parents and
teachers – aware of the strengths of older people,
and confront some of the stereotypes we often hold
toward aging and older adulthood.
Encourage and support long-term, mutually-
supportive, caring intergenerational relationships.
Grandparents will appreciate any concrete ideas and
resources you provide to help them build and
maintain a connection with the young.
Give grandparents an opportunity to see firsthand
what children are doing in today's schools and meet
the teachers. The education system has to be made
real and relevant to older adults.
Foster community relations and boost family
involvement in schools. Children whose families –
parents and grandparents – are involved in their
education learn better. Schools get much needed
additional support.
Encourage older adults to fulfill a social role and
responsibility by volunteering in schools and acting as
mentors, which benefits children and can transform a
beleaguered education system.
By doing activities leading up to and then after the
event, expose children to new ideas from a historical,
multigenerational, and life course perspective.
Create a community that remembers its history as it
builds its future. Young and old can find wisdom and
inspiration in each other.
National Grandparents’ Day
4. National Grandparents Day started in the USA in 1978 and has been running in the UK since
1990. It is an annual celebration that honors grandparents and other older people, and seeks
to strengthen relationships between the generations.
Friends of the Elderly has promoted Grandparents Day in Ireland for the past five years.
They say they do not wish to “own” the Day and are very happy for other organisations to
either do their “own thing” around the day or do something jointly with their charity.
When is Grandparents Day?
Grandparents Day is celebrated each year in Ireland on the third Sunday of September – this
year it will be on the 24th.
Why Should ARI get Involved?
European Year of Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations
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What is the Purpose of Grandparents Day?
According to the National Grandparents Day Council, Grandparents Day has a threefold
purpose:
To honor grandparents
To give grandparents an opportunity to show love for their children’s children.
To help children become aware of the strength, information and guidance older people
can offer.
Help to combat isolation and lonliness
What is the National Grandparents Day Council?
The National Grandparents Day Council is a nonprofit group, organized by the descendents of
Marian McQuade, the founder of National Grandparents Day, to honor grandparents, promote
intergenerational appreciation and activities, and encourage people to visit seniors who are
in nursing homes.
The National Grandparents Day Council recruits representatives from every state, and
sponsors contests (photo, essay, poetry, web design, songwriting and art) that help children
honor their grandparents.
What Inspired Grandparents Day?
When Marian McQuade was a child, she often visited her grandmother, Maude McClung
Dickerson, on her 130-acre farm in West Virginia.
"After working all day on the farm, Grandma would walk off to visit elderly people of the
community," McQuade recalled in a 1995 interview with the magazine Wonderful West
Virginia. "Often I would tag along. I never forgot talking with those delightful people. That's
where my love and respect for oldsters started."
McQuade’s lifelong advocacy for seniors not only led to the creation of National Grandparents
Day, it also put her on a path to national prominence as a leader on senior issues and gave
her the opportunity to present her views to three U.S. presidents (Eisenhower, Nixon and
Carter).
The Current State of Grandparents Day
Grandparents Day began as the idea of one woman, who inspired other dedicated people to
follow her lead and join her campaign to establish a special day for grandparents. Today,
Grandparents Day is celebrated by millions of people throughout the United States, who take
the opportunity to honor their parents and grandparents, to visit other older friends and
relatives, and to recognize the wisdom, strength and lasting contributions of seniors
everywhere.
Features
Profile famous people raised by their grandparent/s in Sunday newspapers
5. Research findings
Of our 23,000 members on the amount of time spent helping families and communities (such
as childminding/volunteering etc).
Merchandising
Happy Grandparents’ Day Cards
Novelty Items
