Proclamation 4580

By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation

Our nation was shaped by the wisdom and courage of our founding fathers, and by the steadfastness of succeeding generations who have sustained their vision through two turbulent centuries of challenge and growth.

Each American family is similarly shaped and guided by its forbears. Just as a nation learns and is strengthened by its history, so a family learns and is strengthened by its understanding of preceding generations. As Americans live longer, more and more families are enriched by their shared experiences with grandparents and great-grandparents.

The elders of each family have the responsibility for setting the moral tone for the family and for passing on the traditional values of our Nation to their children and grandchildren. They bore the hardships and made the sacrifices that produced much of the progress and comfort we enjoy today. It is appropriate, therefore, that as individuals and as a nation, that we salute our grandparents for their contribution to our lives.

Now, THEREFORE, I, JIMMY CARTER, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate Sunday, September 10, 1978, as "National Grandparents Day." I urge officials of Government at the national, state, and local levels, and of voluntary organizations to plan appropriate activities so that the contributions that our grandparents have made may be appropriately recognized.

I urge each citizen to pause and to reflect on the influence his grandparents have had in shaping his own destiny, and on the legacy bestowed upon our contemporary society by his grandparents' generation.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this third day of August, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred seventy-eight, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and third.

JIMMY CARTER

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 10:38 a.m., August 4, 1978]