US National Grandparents Day

Today’s session of the Gabfest Club at Window on America center Dnipropetrovsk was dedicated to the US National Grandparents Day. This holiday is an annual observance that honors grandparents and other seniors, and seeks to strengthen relationships between the generations. 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.
The Club members were pleasantly surprised to learn about this holiday. We mentioned the symbolic flower of this holiday – forget-me-not. The club members were given a task to explain why their grandparents were important for them and to tell about the things they have learned from their grandparents. Once we heard all the stories we moved to a closely related topic of genealogy. We watched a video in which Americans explained their interest in making family trees. This allowed us to compare the situation in Ukraine which had less available archives for family history research.
The second part of the session was dealing with the big event in the city – the Dnipropetrovsk Day celebration. We used this chance to explain the symbolism of the city’s coat of arms to the Club members who moved to the city from other areas of Ukraine. The natives of Dnirpopetrovsk  told about the local theaters and architectural landmarks we are proud of. At the end of the session our volunteer Mr. Josh invited all the sport-lovers to join them in a game of kickball.
The session was enjoyed by all the participants.
Number of participants – 18 persons.

Have a look at more pictures, please