There were lots of smiles and hugs as our students from preschool to high school welcomed their grandparents to our campus on November 23 for our annual Grandparent Appreciation Day. Over 400 grandparents experienced worship time in chapel and visited classrooms to enjoy one-on-one time with their grandchildren.
Grandparent Elaine Santo was the featured speaker during chapel. A retired teacher who taught math for 21 years, Santo encouraged her fellow grandparents to pray for the teachers and staff at ACS. “You are a critical component in the lives of your grandchildren and there is nothing more important than praying for them as well as for their teachers and this institution,” Santo said.
Santo also shared about her experience teaching an elective class at ACS called GEMS, which gave middle school girls an opportunity to gain confidence and poise as young ladies, focusing on developing their beauty on the outside and the inside. Her passion for teaching young women to be confident and look their best comes from her own life experience. While attending the University of Delaware, she entered the Miss Delaware scholarship pageant in 1975 and won. The next year she competed in the Miss America pageant. Santo has seven grandchildren, three of which attend ACS — Johannah, Aaron, and Caleb Wilson.
The chapel program also featured ACS students performing various songs to show their appreciation for their grandparents. The groups that performed included the 5th Grade Worship Team, the 5th Grade Band, the 1st-5th Grade Sign Language Club, the PreK4 Classes, and the Kindergarten Classes. 12th grader Cruz Lewis opened the chapel with prayer and 5th grader Megan Connolly gave the closing prayer, thanking God for the love that grandparents pour into the lives of their grandchildren.
Grandparents had the opportunity to visit Early Ed and kindergarten classrooms before the chapel. Grandparents with students in grades 1-5 visited their grandchildren after the chapel and enjoyed doing special activities with them. Students in the 6th-12th grades came down to the gym to spend time with their grandparents during a reception held after the chapel. Dozens of students and their grandparents also visited the school library to view and purchase items from the Book Fair.
We celebrate the special bond between grandparents and their grandchildren. As it says in Proverbs 17:6 – “Children’s children are a crown to the aged.”
CLICK HERE for a video highlighting the day’s activities.
