by Dennis Dalman
On the day Betty Lansing turned 85 years old, she was working as a “foster grandmother” with her beloved kindergartners at Kennedy Elementary School in St. Joseph.
On that day, the school’s intercom system announced “Today is Betty Lansing’s 85th birthday.” The students in a sixth-grade class leaped up and loudly clapped and cheered: “Happy Birthday, Grandma Betty!”
At the time, Lansing didn’t know about it. After she left the kindergartners, she heard about the birthday tribute from someone in a school hallway. She smiled – filled with bright happiness but choking back tears.
Six years previously, those cheering sixth-graders had been kindergartners that Lansing, as a volunteer foster grandmother, had tutored and nurtured. The bonds of affection they formed were deep and lasting.
Every achievement of the kindergartners was welcomed with a big hug from “Grandma Betty” and hugs from her students. And they were lasting hugs because year after year, older students would see her in the hallways and run over to hug “Grandma Betty.” That also happened on city streets and in grocery stores.
“It was such a sense of accomplishment for a child and for me when that child could finally recite the whole alphabet from A to Z or when the child could count numbers in order,” Lansing recalled in an interview with the St. Joseph Newsleader.
For a dozen years, Lansing served as a volunteer for the “Foster Grandparent” program through Catholic Charities of Central Minnesota. For a full school day, four days a week, she helped in kindergarten classrooms, assisting the teachers with tasks, helping children put coats and boots on, teaching the ABCs and numbers, taking the students from one room to another and – not to forget – giving them lots of hugs.
“Hugs are very important,” Lansing said.
About 15 years ago, after husband James died, Lansing felt a need to do something enjoyable but meaningful. One day she saw an ad in the church bulletin about the Foster Grandparent program. She checked it out, applied, was accepted and thrived on the job. It was just what she was looking for.
She decided to quit about three years ago due to failing eyesight and weak knees that caused a fear of falling. She still misses working with kindergartners.
“Oh, I loved going to school and seeing those little kids,” she said. “I loved seeing those kids.”
Unfortunately, there are not at this time any foster grandparents helping at Kennedy Community School. The lack of volunteers is likely due to the Covid pandemic.
Grandpa Kevin
Another active foster grandparent is St. Joseph resident Kevin McCarthy, who was assigned five years ago to work with students four days a week at Sartell’s Pine Meadow Elementary School.
Like Betty Lansing, McCarthy saw a Foster Grandparent ad in a magazine while waiting for a doctor’s appointment. It piqued his curiosity and he volunteered.
“I just love it,” he said. “The kids love it, too, when they get to come and talk to me. They like the one-on-one communication, which they miss because teachers are too busy teaching to do much of that personal kind of contact.”
McCarthy works with the students of 11 teachers. The children do lessons with him in hallways outside the classrooms. It’s usually two or three students at a time, but sometimes more. Most often he helps them with reading and math, but other times they just happily talk.
McCarthy, who is 74, is widely known by children as “Grandpa McCarthy.” Knowing what a fulfilling job it is for volunteers and the children, he wishes more elderly people would consider becoming Foster Grandparents.
“Most schools just about everywhere need one or more foster grandparents,” he said. “We used to have three of them at Pine Meadow. Now it’s just me.”
Sara Heurung
Like McCarthy, Sara Heurung also wishes there were more volunteers. Heurung is the Catholic Charities supervisor for eastern Stearns and western Benton counties.
She is fond of telling senior citizens, “Do you want to feel good about yourself at the end of the week? Join our program!”
Currently, in a 16-county area of central Minnesota there are 172 foster-grandparent volunteers. Some schools have none at all due to lack of volunteers.
“We’d like to have 172 more,” Heuring said.
Volunteers must be 55 or older, pass background checks and complete a basic training program. There are tax-free money stipends available for seniors who qualify due to financial need.
Volunteers work with children at more than 200 sites: in schools, after-school programs, the Reach Up Head Start program, non-profit childcare centers or the YES Network that provides lunches for children in the summer as well as activities in parks for children.
“So many intergenerational contacts form,” Heurung said. “And the volunteers helping can take a load off of teachers, too.”
She often visits the sites where she observes the success of the Foster Grandparent program in action. She is still moved by the memory of a St. Joseph student who decided to construct a pergola on school property in memory of a foster grandmother, the late Darlene Bechtold, who had worked for years with students at Kennedy Elementary School.
Heurung is hoping senior citizens will sign up for the program so they will be trained and ready later or for next year, once the virus concern has decreased. Volunteers can choose and be assigned to schools and programs that fit their talents and interests. In some programs, they can work with teenaged students, too.
Heurung noted the Foster Grandparent program began locally and nationwide in 1965 as one part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s massive War on Poverty initiative.
To find out more about the Foster Grandparent program, visit the Catholic Charities website and then click on “Community Services.”
On last year’s Veterans Day, St. Joseph resident Kevin “Grandpa” McCarthy shared with students at Sartell’s Pine Meadow Elementary memories of being in the U.S. Navy. McCarthy has volunteered for five years as a member of the “Foster Grandparent” program. The program is seeking more volunteers.
