The governing body for R/C aircraft is the Model Academy of Aeronautics. The organization has been around 1936!
Founded in 1936, the AMA is the official national body for model aviation in the United States. They sanction more than one thousand model competitions, and an increasing number of non-competitive Fly-in events for member aeromodelers throughout the country each year, charter more than 2500 model airplane clubs and offer contest sanctioning,
liability insurance and the procurement of flying sites.
Here is a link to a local club finder. Bring your kids or grandkids to the local club flying field, let them see all the neat airplanes, who knows, maybe it will spark an interest and the camaraderie at the flying field is just as strong as any other hobby and passionate folks willing to help. All you need is a spark of interest.
http://www.modelaircraft.org/clubsearch.aspx