The Ottawa County Family Advocacy Center manages programs such as GRANDlove, CASA, TNT Mentoring, TICKET to Success, and Summer Lunch. The social organization also created a community garden at its Port Clinton center this summer, which included beautiful sunflowers shown off by Tatum Riddle.

National Grandparent’s Day is almost here and the Ottawa County Family Advocacy Center (OCFAC) is holding a special celebration on Sunday, Sept. 12 to honor those grandparents and other significant mentors raising grandchildren in their GRANDlove program.

The local Grandparent’s Day will be a free picnic from 3-5 p.m. honoring these very special grandparents, and providing fun and games for the children. It will be held at the new Hopfinger Zimmerman Memorial Park, 4909 Oak Harbor SE Rd., Port Clinton, just west of State Route 53 South.

There will be food, games, entertainment and prizes for all ages. If you are a grandparent (or other family member) doing this very important work, please join us as OCFAC celebrates your effort. For more information, contact 419-301-0225.

According to the Center For Disease Control, some 2.6 million grandparents in the United States are raising their grandchildren, and this takes a terrible toll on the grandparents. Higher than normal rates of depression, sleeplessness and emotional problems, as well as chronic health problems like hypertension and diabetes occur.

These grandparents experience feelings of exhaustion, loneliness and isolation.  There’s a disproportionately high rate of poverty among the grandparents with more than 40% reporting having unmet economic needs.  There are also rewards such as a renewed sense of purpose and the joy of having young children at home.

The Ottawa County GRANDlove program is serving more than 100 families in Ottawa County and would love to meet more. According to the most current census data, there are 700 grandparent-led homes in Ottawa County.