Foster Grandparents - SuffolkJournal.com

Grandparents Making a Difference
by Jane Lee Bock

June 11, 2001

Despite often painful episodes of sciatica, seventy-nine year old Genevieve Kudrick gets up every weekday to travel to a day care center in Shirley to spend four hours mentoring kindergartners she never even knew only a few weeks ago. Her mission is simple. Make their lives a little easier by providing them with a grandma's sage wisdom and nurturing heart.

Kudrick is a volunteer with the Federation of Organization's Foster Grandparents program which celebrated its 24th anniversary last week. Nationwide the program is said to have nearly a half million volunteer grandparents. In New York State the number is 24,000, and the estimate is that more than 80,000 children are touched by the personal interaction provided by their elder friends.

"What we do is very simple," said Kudrick. "We read to them, take them out on the playground. Sometimes you get children who are emotional and you just give them support. It gives me a reason to get up and get going every day because I know the children need me. It is very satisfying."

Kudrick has 5 grandchildren and six great grandchildren. "There's an old saying, I wish when I had my children I could have been a grandma. A grandma gives a special kind of attention and love," she said.

New York State's First Lady Libby Pataki attended the anniversary luncheon which honored the volunteers. "There is nothing more beautiful and valuable than an adult mentor. Not everybody has parents or grandparents that can be there for them and what our children learn from our elder members of society is very important," she said.

Suffolk's Foster Grandparent program started in 1977, and there are now 150 volunteers serving more than 600 children at 62 sites. The Federation's mission is to assist individuals and families to meet their own needs within their communities through self-help, provision of quality services, advocacy and development of resources.

"Sharing your time and encouraging children to read builds self-respect and increases the potential that our children will build strong and successful futures," said Congressman Steve Israel.

Way to go grandmas.