(ThyBlackMan.com) “A daughter is the happy memories of the past, the joyful moments of the present, and the hope and promise of the future”. Unknown The excitement and fun of this year’s dance will be remembered by young ladies until the next dance of 2013. Fueled by great music, classy food, new found friendships, and unstoppable dance floor action, the Daddy Daughter Dance keeps getting better.
Daughters, grand-daughters, nieces, step-daughters were treated to an evening of dancing, photographs, food and fun. Annually Girls Inc. of Jacksonville ( http://www.girlsincjax.org ) provides this event as a fundraiser; their Spring Daddy Daughter Dance in the Grand Ballroom of the beautiful and elegant Hyatt Regency Downtown Hotel. This was an evening that included a stylish dinner complete with dessert, rockin and hip music by DJ Dan that kept the dance floor full, a silent auction and raffle prizes available for the thousand young ladies in attendance. 
All proceeds benefit Girls Inc. of Jacksonville, a nonprofit organization that inspires all girls to be Strong, Smart & Bold. Talking to some of the young ladies as my granddaughter India danced, Makeilah a fifth grade student in DCPS shared that this gives her and her dad a chance to get closer because he is so busy with work. Shae chimed in that her parents are divorced, and the dance helped her and her dad get closer. This was her first dance and she was overwhelmed by all the girls.
She wished that girls whose parents are divorced their dads could bring their daughters. It is hard being away from her dad and sometimes her mom does not let her dad come and get her when he wants to. The dance makes their relationship stronger.
During the dance military fathers were honored for their sacrifices in defending the safety of this country during their times overseas or stationed in military units based away from their families months at a time. The honor of bringing their daughters to this event that sets high standards for chivalry, unparalleled fatherly respect for their daughters and love.
Daughters and dads were dancing on the Grand Ballrooms dance floor from Hip Hop, R&B, Country, and other musical genres. The young ladies formed several dance lines that paraded around the dance floor and formed dancing circles that spun, twisted and turned creating scream of happiness and joy. Dads that embrace the role and accept the honorable duty to be a parent of a young lady understand the importance of a trusting and loving connection that is diametrically different with sons.
Many young ladies shared that this is the best time they had with their dads and wished more girls could come next year with their dad or grand-dads. Crystal came with her step-dad and said at first she did not want to come with him, but changed her mind and glad that she did.
She said she learned a new fun side of him that she likes and they pledged to do more stuff like this together. If dads expect daughters to set high standards and high expectations to be treated with respect and dignity dads have to display these actions.
The Daddy Daughter Dance accomplishes so much in the strengthening of relationships between girls and the men in their life’s. This dance creates the opportunity for dads or the significant males in a girl’s life to teacher her also about having high expectations when they consider dating and future relationships. This is so important to the building of a young ladies self-esteem and self confidence in them. As a teacher the value of personal acknowledgement and high self worth carries young ladies far in their education and career aspirations. It is not just a mother’s responsibility to raise daughter’s, but a dad’s responsibility to help raise intelligent, high achieving and high self esteemed young women.
The Daddy Daughter Dance accomplishes so much more than just dancing and eating the benefits creates a deposit that will continue on for years in the young ladies that attended and will attend this wonderful event in the future.
More pictures at:
http://photobucket.com/dadsanddaughters
Staff Writer; William D. Jackson
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