First Sunday after Labor Day Celebrated as National Grandparents Day
Sunday, September 11 — the first Sunday after Labor Day — will mark National Grandparents Day, a special day to honor the families’ elders and celebrate the familial bonds between the young and old. The holiday’s beginnings can be traced back to 1956 — the same year that McPeak’s Assisted Living was founded.
Back then, Marian McQuade, a West Virginia resident, was helping put together a celebration for seniors over the age of 80 when she noticed that the local nursing home residents were alone and had no one to visit them. From there, she sought to establish a holiday for all grandparents and those seniors who may have been forgotten by their families.
In 1973, West Virginia became the first state to establish Grandparents Day. Five years later, Congress passed a bill declaring the first Sunday after Labor Day to be Grandparents Day. The bill was signed into law by then-President Jimmy Carter.
As the population has aged, National Grandparents Day has grown in importance as more seniors become grandparents. According to the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), there are 70 million grandparents in the U.S., an increase of 24% since 2001. The Legacy Project estimated that, in 2020, the number increased to 80 million, with 75,000 older adults ages 49-65 becoming grandparents this month.
When the pandemic spread across the U.S., assisted living facilities were on lockdown and families were not allowed to visit Grandma and Grandpa. Now that the infection rate has dropped significantly, New York State has loosened its requirements. McPeak’s also lifted most of its restrictions; however, the facility still requires temperature checks at the front desk, scheduling visits in advance, and wearing a mask when walking through the facility. For more information regarding visits at McPeak’s, go to https://www.mcpeaks.com/covid-19-visitation-policy.
“The pandemic and social restrictions were hard on everyone but most difficult for our seniors who were most at risk for serious infection and often self-isolation,” says Mcpeak’s Owner James McPeak. “There’s no better time than this year to fully embrace National Grandparents Day and spend time with our grandparents.”