This activity is similar to Secret Grandmother, but on a larger scale. This activity was very detail orientated, but still popular. It took a lot of effort to prepare.
Adopt a grandparent is essentially pen pals. We set this activity up so they would write back and forth for two months and then we would have a meet-n-greet dinner at the church for our November combined mutual.
My teaching companion and I put together a list of older members in our congregation that would benefit from this. We wanted a diverse group. It didn't matter if they were active or not, male or female, married or single, already grandparents or not. We put together a list of about twenty people, including married couple and individuals. The Bishop approved our list before we proceeded and added his own suggestions. I also recommend receiving suggestions from the Elders Quorum and Relief Society President. They know the needs of their stewardship.
Once we had a list in place, we preassigned all of the youth to an adult. Each adult had about 5-6 youth assigned but that includes everyone on our roles, active and less-active. On average, each adult had about 3-5 youth actually writing them. Try to assign each adult a mixture of boys and girls. It makes it more fun.
After establishing the assignments, another leader and myself went door to door to ask each of the assigned grandparents if they wanted to participate. Each visit consisted of presenting the activity, answering questions, and handing them a letter that explained the activity as well. We had a few say no so be prepared to have backup people in mind or rework your list to reassign the youth to someone else. Be sure to verify any allergies before the big reveal dinner party.
Handout:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1olbvru9y1mSs3JYeOdpzZjPcu6XMZdM2/view?usp=sharing
Cards, letters, and gifts poured in. It was wonderful to see so many people on both sides of the activity be so diligent. When the time came to have our big reveal social gathering, we had a great turn out. There were a few adults out of town or house bound due to the bad weather so I recommend doing a bit more preparation in that regard but it was still a success. Both young and old loved it. We had lots of ice cream choices, toppings, and laughter.
I think we will be doing this event again.
Adopt a grandparent is essentially pen pals. We set this activity up so they would write back and forth for two months and then we would have a meet-n-greet dinner at the church for our November combined mutual.
My teaching companion and I put together a list of older members in our congregation that would benefit from this. We wanted a diverse group. It didn't matter if they were active or not, male or female, married or single, already grandparents or not. We put together a list of about twenty people, including married couple and individuals. The Bishop approved our list before we proceeded and added his own suggestions. I also recommend receiving suggestions from the Elders Quorum and Relief Society President. They know the needs of their stewardship.
Once we had a list in place, we preassigned all of the youth to an adult. Each adult had about 5-6 youth assigned but that includes everyone on our roles, active and less-active. On average, each adult had about 3-5 youth actually writing them. Try to assign each adult a mixture of boys and girls. It makes it more fun.
After establishing the assignments, another leader and myself went door to door to ask each of the assigned grandparents if they wanted to participate. Each visit consisted of presenting the activity, answering questions, and handing them a letter that explained the activity as well. We had a few say no so be prepared to have backup people in mind or rework your list to reassign the youth to someone else. Be sure to verify any allergies before the big reveal dinner party.
As mentioned in our invite, we set up a table in the back foyer to act as a post office. Each individual adult or couple had a personal mailbox with their name on it, a large blue mailbox that I made for the youth's mail, blank cards, and a large sign. I learned the hard way that we needed a sign stating not to take anything from the table unless they were a participant.
To introduce the activity to the youth, we gave them a handout explaining the activity that also listed their adopted grandparent. They also received a questionnaire that they had to fill out within a week to initiate. I will include links below for those documents. Please edit as you see fit.
Questionnaire:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Rz5ZDVGzXdC6GlKXb7D9CyY8mwxyHkUM/view?usp=sharing
Handout:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1olbvru9y1mSs3JYeOdpzZjPcu6XMZdM2/view?usp=sharing
Cards, letters, and gifts poured in. It was wonderful to see so many people on both sides of the activity be so diligent. When the time came to have our big reveal social gathering, we had a great turn out. There were a few adults out of town or house bound due to the bad weather so I recommend doing a bit more preparation in that regard but it was still a success. Both young and old loved it. We had lots of ice cream choices, toppings, and laughter.
I think we will be doing this event again.
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