9/11 is also Grandparents Day!

When looking at the calendar for September, I was surprised to see that not only is this year the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, but that day is also by coincidence Grandparents Day. In the United States, Grandparents Day falls on the first Sunday after Labor Day, and this year it's on September 11. It also was on that same date back in 2005.

Because Grandparents Day is actually a lesser-known holiday, not too many Americans are aware it's celebrated on 9/11 this year, if they know about Grandparents Day at all. According the official website for National Grandparents Day Council:

The impetus for a National Grandparents Day originated with Marian McQuade, a housewife in Fayette County, West Virginia. Her primary motivation was to champion the cause of lonely elderly in nursing homes. She also hoped to persuade grandchildren to tap the wisdom and heritage their grandparents could provide. President Jimmy Carter, in 1978, proclaimed that National Grandparents Day would be celebrated every year on the first Sunday after Labor Day.

The convergence of honoring grandparents with the heroes of 9/11 wasn't lost on me. I've been to Hawaii twice this year, so yesterday I created an aloha-themed commemorative drawing celebrating both events. In the above cartoon, little Keisha honors a firefighter with an open lei in the presence of her adopted mother Lee and grandparents. On the other side, little Joey gives a present to his Tutu (grandma in Hawaiian), a police officer. In the center, leis decorate pictures of the Twin Towers and the new World Trade Center, the latter which is now under construction.

As the cartoon invites us to, I also ask that we honor our grandmas and grandpas who have served our communities as first responders--police, fire, ambulance, and disaster response teams, including those grandparents who died saving the lives of others on September 11, 2001.

If you like the cartoon, I invite you to pass it on.