The GrandFamilies Story

The story of The Great GrandFamilies Project begins with an amazing lady named Bonnie Dunn.  Bonnie works at West Virginia State University in Charleston, West Virginia.  She has been serving the students of WVSU and it’s surrounding communities for over 40 years through various means.  Her heart for the GrandFamilies of Kanawha County and throughout the state has truly transformed lives and blessed countless adults and children.

I met Bonnie on a warm summer day through a mutual friend.  That friend was Terry Morgan.  Terry is originally from West Virginia and connected with Bonnie through the Geri-Olympics program at WVSU.  Now, Terry is the kind of person who meets you and becomes your best friend in about 10 minutes, so it didn’t take long for these two to be in cahoots.  Terry is also always on the lookout for an opportunity to care for, help, bless, and otherwise build into people, and Bonnie was a golden opportunity.

Once she had shared with Terry the details of a program she wrote entitled “Healthy GrandFamilies,” Bonnie had an instant partner.  Terry attended several of the program sessions, helped with various parts of the experience and soaked it all in.  Then, when he and I connected over some things I had going on, he shared with me the amazing work that Bonnie and her team were doing in Charleston.

I was fascinated by this program, because I had seen the struggle of grandparents through operating our childcare center, Little Village Kids.  I knew that there was a need here in Ohio as well and I was eager to see how it worked.  This could only mean one thing – a road trip.  Over the last 23 years, Terry and I have taken a lot of road trips, but this one was extra special, because I came away with hope and a plan to help so many families in my community.

I expected to interview Bonnie and glean as much information as my brain could carry home.  What I did not expect was for this amazing lady to open up her program and freely share it with us in its entirety.  Her generousity that day will ultimately change the lives of countless families far beyond Kanawha County.

Inspired to bring this amazing program home to Southwest Ohio, Terry and I began to meet and discuss how our version of a GrandFamilies program might look and function.  We filled the whiteboards in my office with ideas and developed a plan of action.  I started by researching the Grandfamilies situation here at home and what I found blew my mind.  The need for this kind of program was even greater here than it was in West Virginia.

Deeply impacted by my research, I began to reach out to folks at the Butler County Department of Job and Famliy Services.  They connected me to Melissa Ruffner. Melissa, like Bonnie, is a lover of people.  She has been serving the GrandFamilies and Kinship Families of all kinds in Butler County for years through the Butler County Educational Services Center in Hamilton, Ohio.  Melissa was immediately interested in knowing about our program (which we had built on the framework of Bonnie’s program), so we scheduled a meeting.

So there we were, Terry Morgan, Melissa Ruffner, my wife Leslie, and me packed around the table in my office.  Terry told about Bonnie and the origins of our plan.  I shared my research, an outline for the sessions, and some preliminary budget figures.  Melissa took it all in and shared how the county could help out.  And Leslie organized us into a plan with details, tasks, lists, and other “get it done” kind of stuff.

Now, as I’m writing this at 5am on September 18, we are preparing to host our first meeting and pull off the pilot run of our program.  It’s exciting to see how far we’ve come in such a short period of time.

I want to take this opportunity to extend my deepest heartfelt thanks for Bonnie Dunn for sharing the original vision that inspired us all.  I wish to thank Terry Morgan for being my mentor, partner, and friend as we undertake this new adventure together.  Thank you to Melissa Ruffner whose heartfelt efforts and love for the kinship families of Butler County will make possible so much future progress.  And, dearest to my heart, thank you to my wife, Leslie, who has been the greatest partner of any kind for 23 years and counting.

Greg Dungan
Owner, Little Village Kids Family Care Center