Our Common Humanity in the Information Age. Principles and Values for Development

 
Linda Grover, Founder and President, Global Family Foundation
Linda Grover has devoted many years of her life to making real her children’s idea of 
creating a universal holiday for all faiths and cultures. Born in New England and raised in 
the military during WW2, she developed an early interest in politics. She became a 
California congressman’s legislative aide, and subsequently Clerk of the House Indian 
Affairs Subcommittee. Grover also worked for the National Committee for an Effective 
Congress and as a caseworker for the International Rescue Committee.
Her first book, The House Keepers was serialized in the New York Post. Grover is also 
co-author of the New York Times bestseller, Looking Terrific, on women’s evolving 
image; she is the author of August Celebration, a widely distributed book on blue green 
algae as a nutrient for humanity, and Tree Island, an award-winning (Romantic Times) 
novel about the global holiday she envisions. As a television scriptwriter and later head 
writer for The Doctors, NBC, Search for Tomorrow, CBS, and General Hospital, ABC, 
Grover was an early pioneer for more truth and less violence on daytime TV.

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Annexes | 183
In 1998 Grover left her writing career to work with schoolchildren and members of 
Congress to create the unifying holiday of peace and sharing every January 1
st
that her 
children had envisioned thirty years before. The US Congress adopted her initiative in 
2000, and the United Nations General Assembly also called for One Day in Peace every 
January 1. Presidents Clinton and Bush have praised her project, along with twenty other 
heads of state. For her work with schoolchildren to promote what is now called GLOBAL 
FAMILY Day, Grover was named DC Mother of the Year in 2002 by American Mothers, 
Inc., the official Mothers Day organization.
In 2006, the United States Senate unanimously passed a resolution calling on all 
Americans to observe GLOBAL FAMILY Day, and the House of Representatives urgently 
requested that the president and other notables assume leadership of this new tool for 
peace. “It’s becoming very clear”, said Grover, “that governments can no longer make 
peace unless the people also actively make peace. Unless we can begin to build the kind 
of shared traditions that will bond us as one human family, we can’t hope for a world of 
peace and sharing. Baking and breaking bread together, worldwide, on the first day of 
every year, can help to start that process.”