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The month of June welcomes Pride Month, Alzheimer’s Awareness Month, some of the year’s best summer weather, and these special days to save on your calendar for a little something different.
Take a moment to remember, and find a senior in your community to celebrate with. These dates are curated for family members of the aging, caregivers, and lots of people on the internet to celebrate this day with you.
Loneliness is linked to serious health conditions in aging adults. [Read the CDC research.]
Why not send a text message “hey 🤪 happy june!! lol” or a make a quick visit to a friend who’s living alone in June 2024.
Graycare 365: January 2024, February 2024, March 2024, April 2024, May 2024, June 2024, July 2024, August 2025, September 2025, October 2024, November 2024, December 2024.
📘 June 1, 2024 is a Global Day of Parents cuz it’s hard to be a parent!
June’s Global Day of Parents is also called Parent’s Day even though most Americans celebrate a different Parent’s Day in July. Oh brother! Teenagers thinking - “Parents, Who Need ‘Em? - the human race needs parents to survive. Parents are the original caregivers, with extra biological abilities to produce child. When you turn from adult to parent with child, good parenting care, guidance, support, and respect gets those kids becoming well-rounded adults all grown up. We hope this day doesn’t celebrate parents who abuse, neglect, abandon, or another “1,000 Ways to Mess Up Ur Kids”. Steer clear of those, or stop if you’re doing them now, and we’ll celebrate “Good Parent’s Day” together.
📘 June 2, 2024 National Cancer Survivors Day is made of inspiration.
Maybe you can imagine how scary a cancer diagnosis feels. Today is specific to cancer survivors - people who have survived a cancer diagnosis. We’ve kept this day on our calendars since its start in 1987, as more people are diagnosed with cancer each year.
📘 June 5, 2024 Global Running Day is for striders.
Kick, push, kick, push! Getting your legs moving fast in a cyclical motion to propel your body forward using friction under your feet is a fantastic way to keep healthy at any age! Exercise one time today, please, and go at your own pace!
📘 June 7, 2024 Gun Violence Awareness Day brings back bad memories.
Wear orange to end gun violence. Guns are associated with 43,000 American deaths per year. [Read it on WearOrange.org]
📘 June 5, 2024 World Environment Day (WED) schedules formal meetings with agendas about protecting the environment.
It’s hard to say what makes World Environment Day more effective at helping the environment than other holidays. Arbor Day, for example, asks you to plant trees with your hands. World Environment Day has an acronym (WED) so it’s easier to forget its meaning. This day encourages governments, corporations, and other groups of people organized in a structure with power and money discussing amongst their peers on the board effective programs to protect the environment. That’s what she said (Greta Thunberg). “For more than 30 years, the science has been crystal clear.”
Credit: Video is from PBS on YouTube.
📘 June 6, 2024 remembers the Normandy Landings in 1944 during WWII.
When the Allied Forces entered the Nazi Germany-occupied shores of Normandy, France in 1944, it influenced the outcome of the war. On that day however, thousands of United States, United K ingdom, and Canadian military personnel were lost while invading the shores. Notably, thousands of German military personnel were lost while defending the shores. Of over 16 million Americans who served in WWII, only 100 thousand are still alive today (0.1 million, or less than 1%). If you know someone who served in WWII, with us today or only in memory, today is one day to cherish their service that influenced the world we live in today.
📘 June 8, 2024 World Oceans Day catalyzes action for our ocean and climate.
An annual occasion with an annual theme (2024: Catalyzing Action for Our Ocean & Climate) to persuade politicians and corporates to follow through on their sustainability promises. When 1880s scientists started recording the water-level of our oceans, the ocean’s water-level was rising about half an inch per decade. In the 2000s the ocean’s water-level rose over one inch per decade. It’s rising faster than ever, so buy a boat and save yourselves #ad! Michigan, Florida, Hawaii, and coastal states on the east and west especially.
📘 June 9, 2024 Children's Day is one Sunday to honor children.
The well-being and happiness of children is important worldwide. Well-rounded children getting their developmental needs met probably leads to well-rounded adults with greater life satisfaction and less aggression towards others. Stuck between the European Parent’s Day in June and the US Parent’s Day in July, we find Children’s Day in the middle.
📘 June 13, 2024 National Career Nurse Assistants Day begins the full-week recognition of American nursing assistants.
One way to make a nurse feel appreciated is to know the content of their work. The American Nursing Association summarizes three types of nurses - the Registered Nurse (RN), the Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN), and the Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) - provide advanced and basic care in generalized or specialized capacities. Next time, pay a nice compliment to your nurse by noticing the work they’re getting done this shift with a nice greeting card, gift card, or cash bonus. I’ve heard nurses appreciate all three.
📘 June 14, 2024 is the day the US flag became the US flag.
In 1777 it was resolved, “That the flag of the United States shall be of thirteen stripes of alternate red and white, with a union of thirteen stars of white in a blue field, representing the new constellation.” The flag with 13 stripes and 13 stars in a circle is known as “The Betsy Ross”, while uniformly striped and differently star spangled banners of the United States of America have undergone some alteration over the years. How we accrued a perfectly balanced 50 states to form this modern day union? I’d need to read more on American history!
Credit: Video is from Scripps News on YouTube.
📘 June 14, 2024 World Blood Donor Day gives props to donors giving blood to save lives.
It emphasizes the importance of donating blood to ensure an adequate supply for medical treatments and emergencies. Blood donors play a vital role in supporting patients in need of blood transfusions due to illness, surgery, or injury. People are counting on other people’s blood donations, so check out the American Red Cross in your town.
📘 June 15, 2024 World Elder Abuse Awareness Day discussed how elder abuse happens today.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said in 2022 ... the who? World Health Organization, that's who! 🦉 ... that elder abuse is likely to happen more often in places with growing populations of old people. Did you know? In 2024, America is home to 58 million people aged 65+, and that’ll grow to 82 million happy seniors by 2050.
📘 June 16, 2024 Father's Day is for dads, male guardians, and father figures.
The first-ever Father’s Day was celebrated in 1910 just two years after the first-ever Mother’s Day in 1908, as a matter of fact, but it wasn’t until 1972 when Nixon made Father’s Day a national holiday and later flew away from the White House forever in a helicopter.
📘 June 16, 2024 World Sea Turtle Day is for the seven remaining species of the adorable and hard-working sea turtle.
Dr. Archie Carr, the person some call “the father of sea turtle biology”, thinks these shelled and swimming aquatic friends deserve a dedicated day to toot their turtle power!
📘 June 17, 2024 World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought talks dry all day.
Several government bodies keep tabs on climate dryness in our country. Pacific and Rocky Mountain states like California, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas are especially vulnerable to drought. When your land doesn't have water, I think they build pipes from outside to bring you water.
📘 June 19, 2024 Husband Caregiver Day is for male spouses to man-up to care for another.
With world history long honoring masculine hunters who win the bread, the nurturing husband who cares deeply for his wife, family, and those around him takes on all sorts of responsibility in 2024. Cheers to the husbands going the extra mile!
📘 June 19, 2024 Juneteenth remembers one of many late 1800s days when American slaves were freed.
Men in suits signed the Emancipation Proclamation to free black Americans from slavery in 1863, but it took some time for the news to spread throughout the country. All enslaved people in Confederate States were declared legally free effective January 1, 1863 at midnight - “Freedom's Eve”. This day of Juneteenth started 2 years later when men in uniform marched into Texas to set 250,000 enslaved black Texans free - “Juneteenth” is called "America's Second Independence Day". It’s closer to July 4, the Independence Day which started in 1776 to mark America no longer being under control of the British by more civil means of colonial taxes. In the United States, our 13th Amendment abolished slavery in the United States in the year 1865, but the British had abolished slavery some 30 years previous in 1834. No, the United States wasn’t the first to abolish slavery, but did eventually abolish slavery, and the slaves were eventually freed.
📘 June 19, 2024 World Sickle Cell Awareness Day reviews treatments and transplants while there’s still no cure.
Sickle cell disease occurs in black people more than any other group. Of 100,000 people living in America with sickle cell disease are black or of African descent. Approximately 1 in every 365 African Americans are born with Sickle cell disease is a genetic disorder where typical round-shape red blood cells are sickle-shaped instead. Sickle-shaped red blood cells don’t flow as easily, so can block the blood and cause serious health problems.
📘 June 20, 2024 World Refugee Day makes me feel blessed, once again, to call myself American.
More than 3.5 million refugees have entered the United States since 1975. Typically, refugees represent vulnerable peoples, running from danger in their home countries. Refugees are just one classification of people knocking on America’s door asking to come in. The United States is the world leader for immigrants coming in. Since 1965, the number of immigrants in America has increased 400%.
📘 June 21, 2023 Global ALS Awareness Day says “Hello, ALS is NOT the same thing as Alzheimer’s disease”.
Diseases like cancer are well known, because most people know what you’re saying when you say cancer. Although about 30,000 Americans are living with ALS, lots of Americans don’t know what is ALS? ALS is an acronym for the progressive muscle weakness called Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also called Lou Gehrig's disease. ALS is related to and/or has overlap with Motor Neuron Disease (MND), another name and acronym that’re hard to remember. These are conditions where your body stops working when your brain tells it to do stuff, and eventually your body stops working altogether. I’m not living with ALS, and it sounds like a real nightmare. About a year ago, I took an online course to get an unofficial certification as an ALS caregiver, and I still know very little about getting high on life with ALS.
Credit: lil gangreen made this
📘 June 21, 2024 International Day of Yoga hypes up this bendy-good practice of body, mind, and spirit.
Oodles of good research shows yoga is good for old people. Areas of concern like mobility, balance, mental health, and cognitive health are all bundled inside yoga practice’s health benefits.
📘 June 21, 2024 National Indigenous Peoples Day turns American’s attention to Native Americans.
By means of history, over half of 2023’s American Indian population lived in five states: Oklahoma, Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas. Back then, lesser-known tribes became known as part of larger tribes became known as a big-ol group called Native Americans. Today, we honor the indigenous peoples who inhabited before us and a pretty bloody history of take-over when the European settlers spread their land-owning way of life back in the day. Those European settlers weren’t at one with Unci Maka as much as they were in cahoots with their own families to protect, the scientific technology and religiopolitical ideas to get the job done, plus the vast land resources ready-for-the-taking that promised European settlers a better life in North America, as long as there is still some rich land left for me to own by saying I own it and having friends who honor a piece of paper saying I own it they way me and my European settler friends own land with pieces of paper we wrote.
📘 June 27, 2024 Helen Keller’s birthday was actually in 1880.
Hellen Keller is an American author, activist, and lecturer who lived life to its fullest despite living with disabilities. She was born in Alabama on June 27, 1880 and became a well-admired woman for overcoming personal challenges in the spirit of service.
📘 June 27, 2024 National HIV Testing Day is for “Getting Tested, and Taking the Next Step”.
The idea is, if you are at risk of HIV, then knowing your HIV status gives you good options. If you test HIV positive, you have the info you need to find HIV treatment. If you test HIV negative, you probably learned how to stay HIV negative by visiting nurses and doctors who tell you about this stuff. Graycare is NOT a doctor.
📘 June 27, 2024 National PTSD Awareness Day is just FUBAR, man.
First, you can know about PTSD. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety rooted in a traumatic event from your past. If you might have PTSD, you can get screened for PTSD. A professional will test you to see if you have PTSD. Then, if you have PTSD, you can get support for your PTSD. You can also self-care to manage your wellbeing while living with PTSD. You can get support from organizations, friends, neighbors, and family. You can try and deal with your PTSD-related anxiety by yourself, too. If there are 30 things to try and get over your PTSD, then today is a good day for that.
📘 June 28, 2024 Eid al-Adha is the islamic Festival of Sacrifice.
This muslim tradition honors an iconic historic figure Ibrahim’s sacrifice of his own son Ishmael as an act of obedience to a greater power. The Hebrew Bible writes about iconic figure Abraham’s sacrifice of his son Isaac. These days, halal animals are sacrificed as part of the islamic practice. These days, maybe true faith is tested until perfected, but I don’t think I’ve fully grasped the lesson I’m supposed to learn from this important story. I’m still not sure which day it is in 2024.
