Tuesday, May 12 was a red-letter day for me. I was part of something with far reaching implications for the future. And I'm not talking about voting in the provincial election. My vote actually was at the advanced polls this year for one very important reason - the annual Rotary Club's Dad and Me Dance.
Over the many years I've been involved with Rotary, this is the one function we participate in that never gets tiring for me. There's something special about a little girl in a fancy sparkly dress that makes my heart jump. I'm not sure if it's because I only have sons or if it's the notion that I missed out on something in my own childhood.
Whatever the reason for my melancholy, the Dad and Me dance never fails to stir me. The sight of all the little girls dressed to the nines with their proud papas is wonderful. And I think one of the highlights of the whole evening is the joy that this special bond between dads and daughters manifests.
But perhaps the best part of the evening is knowing that many of the girls are not there with their fathers. Instead there are grandfathers, brothers, uncles, neighbours and family friends willing to step in and create a special evening for some fortunate young women. In a day and age where single parent families, usually a mother, are common, this willingness to provide male leadership is vitally important.
The evening is pretty straightforward. The mini charmers burst through the doors as close to 6 p.m. as they can convince their dates to be at Chatelech Secondary School. There are many shy waves to their schoolmates and then they line up for food that many of the girls are too excited to eat. And then the big moment comes - they enter the gym to the utterly danceable tunes of Much Music. And then the fun really begins.
The little wee girls cling to their dads while the tweens ditch their dads to dance with their buddies. As for the men well they get to either showoff their smooth dance moves or jaw with their buddies about the latest Canucks casualty.
Watching these kids sashaying back and forth with their friends, it's not hard to let one's imagination go forward several years to when these girls will be the leaders in our communities. What I wonder will these precious girls take to the future from that evening?
When all is said and done, when the memory of doing the Chicken Dance with their best pal has long faded, when they no longer remember what colour or style their dress was, the one thing that will remain is that for one very special night, they were all fairy princesses with the best prince in the world at their side.
