Year of the Grandparent, 1995

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Part X

The President

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Proclamation 6766--Year of the Grandparent, 1995

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Title 3--
The President

Proclamation 6766 of January 17, 1995

Year of the Grandparent, 1995

By The President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

The American family has undergone dramatic changes in
the past few decades. Families have felt the effects of
a rising divorce rate, declining birth rate, and an
increasingly fast-paced and complicated economy. At the
same time, Americans are living longer, retiring
younger, and taking advantage of more leisure hours
than ever before. Today, approximately 60 million
grandparents in the United States look forward to
spending time with their families and to enjoying their
much-deserved respite.

Despite the many changes, grandparents remain an
important source of knowledge and stability in American
families. Grandparents help us understand the past and
encourage us to hope for the future. They preserve and
strengthen the values we hold most dear--compassion and
generosity, responsibility and tradition. These
relationships between generations have always been
central to the happiness and well-being of young and
old alike.

Households made up of several generations have
increased by more than 50 percent in the past 25 years,
and today, some 3.4 million children live in a
household headed by a grandparent. For parents
struggling with issues including substance abuse or
teenage pregnancy, divorce or separation, grandparents
can be invaluable resources of compassion. For children
who are abused or neglected, grandparents can be
lifesavers. All too often, grandparents embrace these
tremendous responsibilities because no one else is
able. But they also do so out of love, out of the
wisdom that comes from a lifetime spent learning the
importance of family. For all they teach us and for all
they give, we pledge this year to honor grandparents
everywhere.

The Congress, by Public Law 103-368, has designated
1995 as the ``Year of the Grandparent'' and has
authorized and requested the President to issue a
proclamation in observance of this year.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of
the United States of America, do hereby proclaim 1995
as the Year of the Grandparent. I invite Federal
officials, local government, advocacy groups, and
families across the United States to join in
commemorating the many contributions that grandparents
make and in observing this year with appropriate
ceremonies, programs, and activities.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
seventeenth day of January, in the year of our Lord
nineteen hundred and ninety-five, and of the
Independence of the United States of America the two
hundred and nineteenth.