During the pandemic, news stories about intergenerational connection broke into the mainstream.

For the nerds out there: Meltwater media intelligence shows nearly 600 more stories about intergenerational connection in 2020 than in 2019, potentially reaching a total of nearly 7 billion people. That’s 3 billion people more than last year!

2019: 2,348 articles, 3.98 billion potential reach
2020: 2,917 articles, 6.95 billion potential reach

Here are 5 news stories that went viral this year.

1. They bonded over bagels and lox, then Covid-19 hit. Now this 82-year-old and his millennial friend bond over Zoom (CNN)
2. ‘Becoming a Witness’: Teen paints portraits of Holocaust survivors during COVID-19 pandemic (Good Morning America)
3. 2 viruses — COVID and racism –devastate the Black community and threaten America’s stability (ABC News)
4. An Intergenerational, Multiracial, Virtual Friendship Formed in COVID-19 (PBS’s Next Avenue)
5. An Italian grandma is holding virtual pasta-making classes to keep everyone connected (Insider)

Stories about intergenerational connection were popular on our Facebook page, too. Here are 5 that you liked most.

1. After raising 5 children and fostering more than 70 teenage boys, Mary and Mike Vediner are supporting two young families through Grandmas2Go.
2. As a member of Grandpas United, Ervan Caesar is connecting virtually and mentoring teens sentenced by the Youth Court in White Plains, New York.
3. Sherilyn Larkin became an AmeriCorps member with SPB, a national disaster relief organization, and is working on a multigenerational team in Puerto Rico.
4. After 23 years in IT at Intel, Marlene Somerville became an Encore Fellow with Hack the Hood — helping under-resourced youth of color prepare for careers in tech.
5. Junauda Petrus’s beautiful poem, “Give The Police Departments to the Grandmothers,” struck an emotional chord.

Want to see more stories like this in 2021? Connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.