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ELKINS – Randolph County Schools is joining forces with multiple organizations to host a special event catered toward grandchildren and their grandparents.
The Randolph County Senior Center will be the site for a special evening that is being billed as a “Grand Gathering.” The event will take place on Tuesday, Nov. 10 and will run from 6-7:30 p.m.
Randolph County Schools is partnering with the Randolph County Family Resource Network and the West Virginia University Extension Office for the event, which has been designed for grandparents raising one or more grandchildren.
Grand Gatherings will allow participants to learn more about the Healthy Grandfamilies Initiative, which is a free program that is funded by the West Virginia State Legislature.
“Healthy Grandfamilies is a statewide initiative that is run out of West Virginia State University,” Schell Hopwood, Randolph County Schools Family and Community Engagement Specialist, told The Inter-Mountain. “The program is designed to support grandparents who are raising their grandchildren. The support group offers educational sessions for families who enroll in the program. And it provides grandparents with resources that can help aid them in raising their grandchildren.”
There will also be a host of fun activities throughout the evening that grandparents and grandchildren can participate in together as well, including pumpkin painting, family photos, food, music and more.
“We are going to have a bunch of fun activities at the event for grandparents to enjoy with their grandchildren,” Hopwood said. “We have a lot of families who have grandparents raising grandkids in Randolph County. So we are hoping a lot of those families will come out, gather some useful information, and have some fun. And hopefully we have some people interested in participating in the Healthy Grandfamilies program.”
Hopwood said there are 152 students in the Randolph County Schools system who are being raised by their grandparents. The first 25 per-registered families in attendance for the Grand Gathering will receive a Holiday Family Meal Gift Certificate from Bob Evans Restaurant of Elkins.
For more information, or to per-register for the event, contact Hopwood at 304-636-9186.