MOUNTAIN BROOK, AL — Sisters, the balloon arches get all the attention, but every one of them comes from somewhere. Today we’re celebrating our legacy chapter: the Cappa Cappa Grammas, eleven grandmothers who meet every Thursday at 11 a.m. at the country club and who, if we’re being honest, pay for everything.
“We don’t like to talk about money,” said Grammas President Mitzi Whitmore, 74, Blakely’s mother, while signing a check for $40,000 without looking at it. “We just like to talk about what the money is going to be spent on. Every week. In detail.”
The Grammas were founded in 2012 by Capstone alumni mothers who, upon becoming grandmothers, simply did not see a reason to stop. They hold no official PTO position, but they are copied on every email, attend every event, and have lovingly vetoed three spring carnival themes, two principals and one entire color. We don’t talk about mauve.
“My mother has opinions about the pumpkins,” Blakely shared. “She has opinions about the Napa pumpkins. She thinks they should be from Vermont. It’s a whole thing.”
You may remember turnout reached 110% in the recent Room Mom runoff. We can now share that the extra votes came from the Grammas, who voted on behalf of the grandchildren, “who are too young to understand what’s at stake.” Leadership like that is rare.
The arrangement is simple. The Grammas write the checks, and in return they ask for very little: a reserved table at every event, final approval on all napkins, a plaque, and the right to tell each of us, privately and at length, how they did it better in 1994.
We asked Mitzi whether she thinks the younger moms ever push back. She smiled and took a sip of champagne. “Oh, honey,” she said. “Who do you think paid for the valet?”