Celebrate Grandparents Day and Learn the Truth About Vaccines

Show Notes

This Grandparents Day, Generations United and the Alliance for Aging Research are sharing important facts about vaccines with older adults who are often the truth tellers in their families and communities. Getting the truth about vaccination to share with loved ones and friends can help stop disinformation, address vaccine hesitancy, and protect more people through vaccinations. On this episode, Lindsay Clarke, Vice President of Health Education and Advocacy at the Alliance for Aging Research, interviews Generations United Executive Director Donna Butts about Grandparents Day and how grandparents can promote vaccines across the generations.

Join the Alliance for Aging Research and Generations United on Monday, September 13 for a free webinar, “The Truth About Vaccines: How to Stop Disinformation and Promote Vaccines Across the Generations.” Register here: bit.ly/thetruthaboutvaccineswebinar.

Grandparents Day is Sunday, September 12! Learn how you can get involved at https://www.gu.org/projects/grandparents-day/.

Episode Transcript

Lindsay Clarke:

Hi, everyone, and welcome to This is Growing Old, the podcast all about the common human experience of aging. I’m Lindsay Clarke, Vice President of Health Education and Advocacy at the Alliance for Aging Research. today, we’re celebrating Grandparents Day by interviewing Donna Butts, Executive Director of Generations United. I’m talking with Donna about why Grandparents Day is so important and how the Alliance for Aging Research is working with Generations United to promote vaccines across the generations. Donna, thank you for joining us today.

Donna Butts:

Lindsay, thank you. All of us at Generations United are thrilled to be working with the Alliance for Aging Research on Grandparents Day as well as other important initiatives. So thanks for the invitation to join you today.

Lindsay Clarke:

Oh, it’s our pleasure. Can you get us started by telling our listeners a little bit about the mission of Generations United?

Donna Butts:

Generations United was formed about 35 years ago, and it was organized by the leading children, youth, and aging organizations. And they came together at a time when people including politicians were really trying to pit the generations against each other. So our mission was and continues to be to improve the lives of children, youth, and older adults through intergenerational collaboration, and public policies, and programs for the enduring benefit of people of all ages, people at all ages in stages of life. So our really unique role is to elevate that intergenerational lens and intersection. Whether it’s in policy, and program, and community development, it’s elevating the value that people have again at every age and stage of life.

Donna Butts:

And one of our founders, Jack Ossofsky, who at the time was head of the National Council On Aging, said, “We formed Generations United to argue for a caring society that realized that our bookend generations, our youngest and oldest, are those that hold our civil society together and make us all stronger.” And yet, those are the generations that are usually cast aside and not engaged. So we really focus our work on buckets that include spaces and places for all ages, high-quality intergenerational programs and practices, and grandparents and other relatives raising children, grandfamilies and multi-generational families, but again, that unique intersection of intergenerational that values people at every age.

Lindsay Clarke:

Well, it’s such an important mission. And I think it’s really exciting to work with you on things like vaccination but also to learn more about what you do. And one of the things I know that’s really important to Generations United is Grandparents Day, which is a campaign that’s been taking place every year since 2012 and encourages people to do something grand. Could you tell our listeners more about Grandparents Day, and why it’s so important?

Donna Butts:

I’d love to talk about Grandparents Day. We did start in 2012. We looked at Grandparents Day, which was actually signed into law by Congress back… It’s been years ago. I think it was back in the ‘60s, and it was just a little known holiday. And what we didn’t want it to be and what we were dreaming or thinking it could be, we didn’t want it to be just a time where you remember to call grandma, or grandpa, or your grandchild or send a card, or do something like that. We really felt like it provided an opportunity and a platform for doing something grand and doing something grand with or on behalf of another generation.

Donna Butts:

So we started, as you said, in 2012 really elevating Grandparents Day and engaging partners, national partners, which were again delighted that the Alliance as one of those national partners to share common messages and to elevate the opportunity to their members and their networks. So we really wanted it to be a time of action, not a day-off but a day to engage. And so we’ve seen a lot of growth. Obviously, there’s the commercial aspect of it, but there’s also giving people the opportunity to explore what it means to be a grandparent today and the fact that we have so many living generations. And it’s not just grandparents. It’s great-grandparents, great-great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, but it’s all of those older adults that can contribute to an upcoming generation.

Lindsay Clarke:

I love it. And I’m assuming that people can find out more about Grandparents Day on your website, so could you tell everyone what your URL is?

Donna Butts:

I would encourage people to go to grandparentsday.org which is our website, grandparentsday.org, or go to Generations United’s website which is gu.org. And on both sides, we have a number of resources for people that are free, downloadable to give you ideas, to give you suggestions on things that you might do, whether it’s Grandparents Day or the other 364 days of the year.

Lindsay Clarke:

Great. Well, I encourage people to get involved this coming Sunday and throughout the year. I think it’s a really wonderful campaign. And then switching gears a little, we talked about Generations United joining the Alliance for Aging Research on vaccine work. And we’re going to be co-hosting a webinar this Monday, September 13th called The Truth about Vaccines: How to Stop Disinformation and Promote Vaccines across the Generations? And this is the day after Grandparents Day. So what are some things that grandparents should know about vaccines?

Donna Butts:

I’m really looking forward to the webinar too. I think I’m so grateful that you folks are doing the webinars as well as this. Grandparents play at a really important role. I was just reading the other day about someone who was talking with their grandparent about the COVID vaccine, and the grandparents said, “Well, of course I’m vaccinated.” I learned that from Elvis back in the ‘50s, the importance of accepting a new vaccine and the difference it can make in our country and our society.

Donna Butts:

So older adults, grandparents, whether their grandparents or grandfriends, have an important role to play in helping young people who haven’t lived through a pandemic, who haven’t lived through preventable illness, disease about the importance of vaccinations. So that’s why back in 2015, we started our value in vaccinations across generations campaign because too often, people were trying to say they were only talking about vaccines for older adults, only talking about them for children or middle generations and not realizing that we are interdependent. Grandparents don’t want to infect their grandchild any more than a grandchild wants to infect an older adult. So grandparents need to be aware that they’re getting vaccinated to protect their own health, but they’re getting vaccinated to protect those they love. And that’s the message they can also share with a younger generation and that their experience and having lived through some very difficult times but also teach them about the importance and the community responsibility and the family responsibility we have.

Lindsay Clarke:

Yeah. So they’re clearly playing an important role with their perspective and with their advice. But I’m wondering beyond that. Is there another role that we can think about why are grandparents so important in this, in their role of promoting the vaccines?

Donna Butts:

Well, oftentimes, depending on the group in particular, the elders are still that respected voice, that voice of reason, the voice of wisdom, and their voice is really important in terms of encouraging why people should get vaccinated. What we hear so often from people is they want to hear that message from people that have someone who looks like them or someone that they trust and they respect. Now, that could be a medical profession, but in a lot of families and a lot of community, that voice that is respected and is listened to is that of an elder. And that’s the role that all of us as we age should embrace and take very seriously.

Donna Butts:

So grandparents do play a key role in promoting vaccinations. And one thing in particular that’s important is right now, obviously, we’re in the middle of dealing and trying to deal with COVID and the variants that have plagued us. But what has happened is that people have fallen behind in the regular vaccinations. And so that’s also the voice that grandparents in particular bring because they remember what it was like before. There might have been those other vaccinations. So to share that experience, to share that perspective is very powerful.

Lindsay Clarke:

Yeah, absolutely. I think many of us had sort of fallen into this taking vaccines for granted because we didn’t see how devastating these diseases could be. And hopefully, we were still getting our vaccines anyhow, but I think it’s really important to have that perspective there. And when it comes to COVID, we know that it’s been incredibly devastating for older adults. Can you talk about how COVID-19 has impacted grandparents and grandfamilies and the resources that Generations United offers grandfamilies?

Donna Butts:

Indeed, it’s really interesting and sad in so many ways when we first all locked down, realizing the dangers of COVID and the pandemic, because at that time, if you remember the message was “Young and old should not be together, separate yourself, isolate yourself. ” Well, if you’re raising that two-year-old or that four-year-old, you can’t isolate yourself. So it was a terrifying time, and it continues to be very scary for grandfamilies, for grandparents that have that responsibility but also the grandparents who either were providing childcare or have had to step up and provide childcare as a result of so many childcare centers closing and people working from home and needing that relief.

Donna Butts:

So what we did was we immediately created some resources both for grandfamilies that talked about ways of being safe together under one roof as safe as you could be but also trying to get across where you get factual information because that’s what’s so important too. I mean, we all know how much misinformation, and rumors, and things were flying. So we’ve developed those resources. And then because of the risk of social isolation and the importance of younger and older people staying connected, we were really able to survey programs around the country and learn from programs around the country about creative ways that they were keeping generations connected even when they couldn’t be physically together. So we created a guide.

Donna Butts:

And both of those resources, all those resources actually, are on our website. Again, gu.org at Generations United. And it has, again, specific ideas, specific suggestions to really help people. But I think that one thing that’s also very important is that we have our GRAND Voices Network, which our grandparents and other relatives raising children, and they have been wonderful spokespeople, again, voices of reason and wisdom during all of that. So we continue to elevate that peer voice as being so important for people as well.

Lindsay Clarke:

Well, those are all resources that are continuing to be important. And then I would expect that once the pandemic is over, things like tips on how to connect with your families long distance, I mean I think there’s a lot of ways that we can continue to employ some of those ways that we were connecting in a really positive way.

Donna Butts:

One of the guides that we have as a part of our vaccine campaign is one that provides sort of case studies, and examples, and discussion tips and tools for grandparents and other relatives with children. It goes the Elvis example of when he got the polio vaccine on the Ed Sullivan show. It goes the example of Balto, how Balto the dog made sure that the vaccine got to Nome, Alaska for the children there so that grandparents and children could talk in a really healthy way about vaccines, whether we’re in a time like we are now or a time when hopefully we all are hoping for what we’re not going to be facing this as urgently as we are.

Lindsay Clarke:

Absolutely. Hopefully, soon. Well, switching topics, I want to ask you something that we ask all of our guests on the podcast. When you were a kid, what did you imagine growing older would be like?

Donna Butts:

I love that question. It’s always so fun because I remember when I was younger and the year 2000 seems so far away. I thought, “Oh my, I’m going to be 45 in the year 2000. I bet I won’t even be alive, let alone be able to move, or walk, or do any of those kinds of things.” I had this sort of idea in my head that growing older was a sad thing, either sad because you weren’t going to be able to do anything or sad because I would look at some of the older adults who were less fortunate in terms of the income they made, and they had to continue to work and to work at very hard jobs.

Donna Butts:

But what I really have learned and I think that I love about doing intergenerational work is to imagine a different kind of world for people to grow older in. And as I got older and got more perspective on it, I really realized how amazing growing older can be, the things that you leave behind, the things that you look ahead to, and the things that you realize that you can do if you stay focused on what you can do. So imagining what growing older is going to be like and then the way that I think we all are working to grow older, at least I know I am and many people dare to me are, is really imagining that world that we want to grow older in.

Lindsay Clarke:

Well, to that point, what do you enjoy most about growing older now?

Donna Butts:

I really enjoy the aspect of really having more time to listen. I remember growing older as somebody wants describing as it’s a time when you realize that you can do the things you never thought you had time to do because I think what happens is you start to realize what’s really important. And I was talking to somebody the other day about what are the keys to happiness. And one of the keys to happiness is to wake up everyday and be grateful for the day. And I think as we grow older everyday, I’m grateful for everyday. And I like that feeling as opposed to all of the other… I mean, there still are obviously a lot going on in the world, a lot that we’re very engaged in, and I think that I’m very engaged in. But it’s that embracing everyday, and having that perspective of embracing everyday, and realizing how that day develops, you’ve got some power or some control in it, and we should be grateful.

Lindsay Clarke:

I think that answer sort of echoes some of the other answers we’ve heard, and I hope that what people take from it is to try to have that perspective when we’re younger because how valuable would it be to feel that way. Even when we’re younger, and things seem more anxious, and we have a lot of competing priorities to have that perspective is so incredibly valuable. So thank you. And Donna, thank you so much for joining us today on This Is Growing Old for helping our listeners learn about Grandparents Day and about Generations United. You’re doing incredible work, and I hope they go to check you out.

Donna Butts:

I hope so too. And Lindsay, again, thank you very much for this opportunity. And we really are delighted to be working with you.

Lindsay Clarke:

Well, likewise. And before we wrap up, I want to encourage all of our listeners to join us for the up-and-coming webinar we discussed earlier, The Truth about Vaccines. It will be on September 13th at 1:00 PM Eastern time. The webinar will feature Donna as well as Dr. Todd Wolynn, who’s chief executive officer at Kids Plus Pediatrics. He has become a big voice in misinformation for vaccines.

Lindsay Clarke:

So join us to learn more about how older adults can get the truth about vaccination to share with our loved ones and friends and to help stop disinformation, address vaccine hesitancy, and protect more people through vaccination. You can register at bit.ly/thetruthaboutvaccineswebinar or at the link which is in our show notes. We’ll also be announcing two new resources during the webinar that will help you share the truth about vaccines. We hope you’ll join us. And if you’re listening to this after September 13th, you can watch the webinar video at agingresearch.org/ourbestshot.

Lindsay Clarke:

And thank you everyone for listening to This is Growing Old. Our intro and outro music is City Sunshine by Kevin MacLeod. Please stay tuned for new episodes every other Wednesday. You can subscribe on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere else you listen to podcasts, and please rate and review us if you’re enjoying the show. Thank you for listening to This is Growing Old, and have a great day.