From Keith Lowhorne:

In the Alabama House Chambers with Speaker of the House Mac McCutcheon with our AFAPA group.

AFAPA President Buddy Hooper and me with Alabama Representative Howard Sanderford discussing issues involving grandparents

We had the room decorated with banners and photos of grandparents with their grandchildren hanging throughout the room. Each table had information supplied by Generations United with facts and figures. We had a continuous loop of photos on huge screens playing throughout the room. We wanted these people to know it was about kids and the grandparents who are raising them. We had snacks and water to encourage people to stay and talk. It was powerful as many of these politicians just stared at the photos.

It was incredible that every person we talked with knew a grandparent who were raising grandkids, kinship stories, single parent raising his daughter whose wife committed suicide-the man said over and over he couldn't raise the young girl without his parents. We talked with legislators who were adopted, raised by their grandparents or were in foster care situations.

When the legislators went into session, Speaker McCutcheon acknowledged our group from the AFAPA as Grandparents as Parents. The politicians gave us a standing ovation.