By: Stacie Kinlaw
Bladen County 4-H and Bladen County Parks and Recreation are partnering together to offer their third annual Father – Daughter Sweetheart Dance on Saturday, March 28, 2015 at 6:30 pm. Tickets and registration forms are available at either agency’s location in Elizabethtown. On this special night, Bladen County Dads (or Grandfathers) will bring their sweetheart date(s) to enjoy a night of music, dancing, pizza from Giorgio’s Restaurant, refreshments, face painting, a keepsake photo, crafts and much more! Tickets will be available through mid-March as space allows. The cost of a ticket will be $15/couple and $5 for each additional daughter. All checks will be made payable to Bladen County 4-H, as any proceeds from the event will help support our county’s 4-H youth development program in the coming year.
On March 28, the Auditorium at the Bladen County Extension office will be transformed into a dance floor, photo booth provided by Sweet Cherish Photobooth, crafting space and decorated with sweet hearts everywhere! The space is limited for this special occasion, so be sure to get your tickets early. You can either stop by the offices of Bladen County 4-H or Bladen County Parks and Recreation to pick up the registration form and pay for your tickets or you can download the form http://bladen.ces.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/registration-form.pdf and bring by one of the offices with payment. For more information about this event contact Stacie Kinlaw – Bladen County 4-H (910) 862-4591 or Patti Miller – Parks and Rec (910) 862-6770. Bladen County 4-H is a program of Bladen County Cooperative Extension Services and is located at 450 Smith Circle Drive in Elizabethtown in the Powell Melvin Agricultural Building. The Bladen County Parks and Recreation main office is located at the King Street Gym at 803 W King Street Elizabethtown, NC 28337.
Nancy Howell, one of the coordinators of this event, volunteers because of her daughter, Adrienne, age 11. Adrienne has gone on this annual date night with her daddy since she was 2 years old. When her family moved to White Lake from Goldsboro, NC in 2011, Adrienne was sad that she and her father would miss the special event. So her mom approached Grant Pait, the director of Bladen County Parks and Recreation with the idea and volunteered to help coordinate the event. Adrienne says, “I love the father-daughter dance because I get to spend time with my daddy.” This makes her mother happy too because she knows that the girls are growing up quickly, and this makes a special first date with the first guy in their life – their daddy.
The Father- Daughter dance provides an opportunity for fathers to spend unique bonding time with the special girl or girls in their life and to have fun making crafts, dancing, taking silly pictures and creating memories that will last a lifetime. This is an important family centered activity and opportunity that is offered through youth programming in Bladen County. The National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse (NRFC) recognizes the importance of father involvement and that all fathers can be important contributors to the well-being of their children. Not only did their findings suggest that the presence of a responsible father has a direct effect on behavioral and emotional outcomes for the child, but the research supports the conclusion that children with involved, loving fathers are significantly more likely to do well in school, have healthy self-esteem, exhibit empathy and pro-social behavior, and avoid high-risk behaviors including drug use, truancy, and criminal activity.
If you are a Dad, Granddad, or even a special Uncle, please consider investing in a memory for your little girl(s) this year and get your tickets to this Sweetheart Dance before they are sold out.
Contact Stacie Kinlaw, (910) 862-4591; Stacie_kinlaw@ncsu.edu
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