August 21st: How to Celebrate National Senior Citizens Day

I have loved older folks my whole life.  I grew up in a very large family and from as far back as I can recall it was understood that we all had a responsibility to each other. I was blessed to enjoy all four of my grandparents during my formative years and two lived through my late thirties. My parents, aunts, uncles and cousins revered all of our grandparents and treated them with the utmost respect. Some of my cousins, my aunts and uncles are more than my family; they are some of my dearest and truest friends.  As our grandparents got older, each child took his or her place in their care and it was, simply put, a seamless transition.  I was privileged to watch my parents care for each other’s parents as if they were their own.  It never dawned on me that there was any other way.  

Throughout our history, many of us have been blessed with older people in our lives who have achieved so much for their families, their communities, and their country.  Is it any wonder then that President Ronald Reagan and the Congress, by House Joint Resolution 138, issued Proclamation 5847 on August 21, 1988, and proclaimed ``National Senior Citizens Day!'' Each year forward, we honor our Senior Citizens with the appropriate ceremonies and activities across the United States. 

August 21, 2012 is quickly upon us.  We have many reasons this year to reserve this special day in honor of all the senior citizens who mean so much to us.  Older citizens are reinforcing their roles as leaders, as links with our heritage, sense of purpose as individuals and as a Nation. Many older people are embarking on second careers, giving all of us a fine example of responsibility, resourcefulness, competence, and determination. Did you know that more than 4.5 million senior citizens are serving as volunteers in various programs and projects that benefit every sector of our society? Wherever the need exists, senior citizens are making their presence felt -- for their own good and that of our society. 

So join me on August 21, 2012 and honor our senior community for all they have achieved throughout life and for all they continue to accomplish.  A simple gesture of kindness, volunteering at a facility, running an errand for someone home alone, listening to a loved one reminisce, providing a medical alert system, making a donation to a senior center, promoting safe driving and senior scam alerts are all wonderful ways to express our heartfelt dedication to our senior citizens.  Across the country we can all best demonstrate our devotion and admiration by promoting senior safety and making sure that our communities are safe places in which to grow older; places in which our loved ones can participate to the fullest, find the encouragement, acceptance, assistance, and services they need to continue to lead lives with independence and dignity.  

“Whether sixty or sixteen, there is in every human being’s heart the lure of wonder, the unfailing child-like appetite of what’s next, and the joy of the game of living. In the center of your heart and my heart there is a wireless station; so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, courage and power from men and from the infinite, so long are you young.”- Samuel Ullman 

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