In 1978, the United States Congress passed legislation proclaiming the first Sunday after Labor Day as National Grandparents Day. The proclamation was signed by President Jimmy Carter.

However, the campaign to set aside a special day for grandparents was initiated by a West Virginia housewife, Marian Lucille Herndon McQuade in 1970.

McQuade and her husband, Joe, are the parents of 15 children, the grandparents of 40 and the great-grandparents of eight. The McQuades are well deserving of a day in their honor as are all grandparents, said Becky Baggett, headmaster at Pike Liberal Arts School.

“Grandparents are very special in the lives of their grandchildren,” she said. “They are role models for their grandchildren and they take those roles seriously. Grandparents take a genuine interest in what their grandchildren are doing and support them in their school activities.”

Baggett said to accommodate the large numbers of grandparents who attended Grandparents Day at Pike Liberal Arts Friday, three times were designated.

“Our grandparents strongly support their grandchildren and that is most important, especially for these young children. Grandparents so generously share their time, their wisdom and their love. There’s nothing as special as a grandparent’s love.”

Teresa Sims, Troy Elementary School principal, said, for the first time, Friday she was a grandparent with a grandchild enrolled at TES on Grandparents Day.

“I have been called by many names during my life from Teresa to Mama to Principal Sims but my head and my heart turn very quickly when I hear, ‘Hey, Mimi.’ It is the name I love most.”

Sims said the grandparents at their special day at TES also proudly wear whatever title they care called.

“As grandparents, we want our grandchildren to have dreams,” she said. “We want those dreams to turn into goals that will drive them to succeed. We want our grandchildren to know that their families believe in them, and their school and their community so they will believe in themselves and they will achieve.”

The principals said students are supported by their families, their schools and their communities. But grandparents play a unique and significant role in their lives. “Grandparents are special people and the world is a better place because they are in it.”