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The Rockingham County Grandparents Raising Grandchildren and Kinship Caregivers Program is a treasure to behold.

Several of the grandparents in the program have legal custody of their grandchildren or are in the process of getting custody. Started by volunteer grandparents through Caregivers of Rockingham County, the group has met monthly from 9 a.m. to noon on Thursdays for a number of years.

“It is hard, even with your own grandchildren,” one participant said.

Grandparents Raising Grandchildren is funded by the Area Agency on Aging division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said Deborah Poole, director of Caregivers.

This money is dispersed by the state to the Piedmont Triangle Council of Governments to the Caregivers Rockingham County office  in Eden.

Poole explains the logo of Caregivers in her discussion of the program: “Helping hands and loving hearts” looking out for each other and neighbors helping neighbors.

Grandparents Raising Grandchildren partners with four senior centers in the county. Reidsville, Eden, Madison, and Rockingham  Community College’s Center for Active Retirement  all have a hand in providing services to the program. Community services present programs for the monthly meetings at “Lunch and Learn” sessions.

Recently a group of grandparents, all women that day, sat around a boardroom table or in nearby chairs at the Caregivers office to hear Wanda Harley, senior advocate of American Retirement Counselors from Greensboro discuss annuities, IRAs, 401(k)s, Medicare and estate planning.

Members find out about the program by referrals from counselors, newspaper articles or word of mouth.

Program participants have enjoyed a Pamper Day, making scrapbooks together, classes at RCC, day trips, cookouts and visiting one another.

Before school this year, the group filled and prepared backpacks for schoolchildren. Poole said the backpacks are made from discarded water bottles and yogurt containers.

“Yogurt containers you discarded hold an education for a child in Rockingham County,” Poole said.

The four senior centers partnered with local business to supply the backpacks’ contents to Grandparents Raising Grandchildren and the homeless community. Community generosity provided enough school supplies that a surplus will be available from the Caregivers office during the rest of the school year or as long as supplies last. 

Activities for children and grandparents include “Cookies in a Jar,” in which the grandparents and children bake together. The adults also are planning a cookbook and providing their own recipes.

The Grandparents Raising Grandchildren program is only one of the many services that Caregivers of Rockingham County provides.

With one assistant — Wanda Lowery, a case manager for seven years — and two office volunteers, Poole manages the 217 volunteers who provide client services for 336 clients, a number that changes daily.

Volunteers provide respite care, friendly visits, companionship, yard work, occasional meals and minor home repairs (owners provide materials).

Caregivers’ greatest need is for volunteers to transport clients in and out of the county. Caregivers is not an agency for home health care, Poole emphasized.

Another great need in the county is volunteers to help construct wheelchair ramps. Local groups and churches often help with building the ramps, and money is available from a local grant for building materials.

Caregivers of Rockingham County has been providing services for the county for 16 years with an office in various locations. After a year on The Boulevard (the one year anniversary is this month), it seems to have found a permanent home. Caregivers bought the building from the city of Eden.

Money from the U.S. Department of Agriculture was used to renovate the reception office, boardroom, work area and a sprawling open space in the back, yet to be completed. A storage room has been added with the help of volunteers.

An Eden native, Rachel Wright is retired as a teacher at Morehead High School and an instructor at Rockingham Community College.CutlineRachel Wright/Special to the News & Record