Children’s art earns grandparents national honor
Posted on Saturday, September 6, 2008
BROOKE McNEELY Northwest Arkansas Times Joshua Martin, 8, from left, hugs his grandfather George Wells with his sister Rachel, 9, Thursday as they talk about George and his wife Lea being named National Grandparents of the Year. The children nominated both sets of their grandparents and won.
Joshua’s art poster shows a boy and a man, each have a hat on, and they are walking toward a business, Woods Saddlery.
Another art poster drawn by the 8-year-old boy’s sister, Rachel, 9, depicts her grandparents picking blackberries along a fence. She is petting one of her grandfather’s horses. There is a cat lying on the ground.
The cat, named Rowdy Possum, was once a kitten her grandfather, George Wells, tended to and bottle fed.
These are the memories Joshua and Rachel Martin chose to draw when they entered the National Grandparents Day contest sponsored by the National Grandparents Day Council.
The children’s creativity paid off and earned their mater nal grandparents, George and Lea Wells of Farmington, the owners of the horses and blackberries, and Russell and Joyce Martin, who live in Heth near West Memphis, National Grandparent of the Year honors.
“ It was a big surprise, ” George Wells said. “ I think it’s pretty awesome that they think of us that way. ”
Sunday marks the 30 th National Grandparents Day.
The children’s parents are Mark and Sharon Martin of Prairie Grove. The youngsters are home-schooled and have a little sister, Rebekah, 4.
The children sent the drawings and photographs with both sets of grandparents to the council, which had the theme this year of “ precious memories. ” The materials were submitted last month.
Being home-schooled allows the children to spend time during the week with their grandparents in Farmington and their other set of grandparents, the Martins, although less often.
“ We ride horses and pick blackberries and go fish and shoot the BB gun, ” Joshua Martin said, when asked to describe what he does at his “ Papa’s ” house in Farmington.
Rachel said she mainly likes to ride horses and picks blackberries, leaving the fishing to Papa and her brother.
“ Rachel doesn’t have enough patience to fish, ” George Wells said.
She said visiting her grandparents is nice “ because we get to do lots of fun things with them. ”
National Grandparents Day was founded by Marian McQuade, a West Virginia housewife and mother of 15 children. Her original goal was to champion the rights of the elderly.
While serving on the Commission on Aging and the Nursing Home Licensing Board, McQuade discovered 60 percent of nursing home residents never have a visitor.
So her first motivation, said her daughter, D. J. McQuade-Lancaster, was to bring school children to nursing homes in West Virginia where they would sing songs and have one-on-one conversations with the nursing home residents.
In order to involve as many people as possible, McQuade and her committee persuaded President Nixon in 1972 to proclaim a National Shut-in Day.
As their campaign gained momentum, the group petitioned West Virginia Gov. Arch Moore for a holiday recognizing grandparents. In 1973, Grandparents Day was founded in that state.
McQuade revisited the schools, asking students to draw posters of activities with their grandparents. The grandparents of the child with the winning poster would thus be named Grandparents of the Year. The practice has continued since that date and spread to other states. McQuade-Lancaster, who coordinates the program and lives in Chula Vista, Calif., said there are 33 states involved.
Grandparents Day was proclaimed a national holiday in 1978 by President Jimmy Carter.
McQuade is now 91 years old, and there will be a special DVD tribute in her honor Sunday, in celebration of the 30 th year, at the Hilltop Senior Center in Hilltop, W. Va., where she lives.
A team of judges at the senior activity center in Chula Vista judges the art posters.
“ They basically look at the content, activities, ” McQuade-Lancaster said.
She noted Joshua Martin’s depiction of visiting the saddlery shop and Rachel Martin’s drawing of blackberries and time spent at the rural home.
George Wells said the grandchildren take over his television when they visit.
Sharon Martin said it is nice that her children have so many nice memories of time spent with their grandparents.
“ That is just really nice to know that they have all these precious memories with them. ”
She said she believes spending time with grandparents helps make children more compassionate and less self-centered.
“ I think it’s important for kids to realize that they’re not the focus of the universe, ” she said.
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