A Moment of Realization8th-Grade Graduation
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“After my mom died, I sat in a packed gymnasium at my son’s graduation and watched kids get recognized for all kinds of things. Good grades. Clubs. Band. Scouts. Community service. Special awards.
And I remember thinking: our kids had done something harder and more real. They had helped care for their grandmother through Alzheimer’s. They had already put in more hours of service at home in a single week than students are ever required to complete in a full year. But nobody was ever going to call their names from a stage and hand them an award for that. And if a kid is helping care for someone at home, when exactly is there time to volunteer? It hit me hard. How many other kids in that room were helping care for someone at home? How many were carrying real responsibility and getting no recognition for it at all? The boys were such an important part of our caregiving team. Our family could not have gotten through that time without them, and neither could my mom. But I had never heard anyone talk about kids in situations like ours, let alone recognize them. What they had done needed to count for something. And other kids carrying that kind of responsibility at home needed to be seen too.” — Sara Poole |
"When our grandmother came to live with us with Alzheimer’s disease, we were just kids." |
| Helping care for her became part of everyday life.
| At the time, we didn’t realize there were millions of kids doing the same thing. We thought we were the only ones. | Kids Are Caregivers Too was created to help make those young caregivers visible. |
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After helping care for their grandmother with Alzheimer’s, Charlie and A.J. Poole began raising awareness about Caregiving Youth and advocating for recognition and support in schools.
Patch reported one early story about their efforts to raise awareness in 2017. [McLean Boys Raise Awareness About Young Caregivers] For details on the Caregiving Youth Service Hour Pilot Program - Click Here
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