CLEVELAND -- More and more schools are recognizing the importance of having a father in the home, and one of the ways they highlight dad is the father-daughter dance.
For most of the girls on Wednesday night, they had their first date.
The point of the father-daughter dance is for young ladies to see exactly how they should be treated by any other man that tries to come into their lives.
Open the door for her, put a jacket on her and give her a corsage.
“It's me and my daughter's first dance together, and just to see her and spend this moment with her, it's a very good feeling,” said dad Alvin Martin.
For him and his 8-year-old daughter, Alina, this is more than just a good feeling.
“This is something we're both going to remember for the rest of her life,” said Alvin.
University Settlement, a non-profit neighborhood center, partnered with the Village Schools to host the first annual neighborhood father-daughter dance.
A total of 300 tickets were distributed to students and their fathers at Warner Girls Leadership Academy, Fullerton, Mound STEM and Willow schools.
The dance brought fathers and daughters together for a memorable evening of dinner and dancing while encouraging fathers to remain involved in their kids' lives.
“People are giving dads a raw deal that they do not want to be involved in their kid's life,” said Frederick Knuckles, program manager for Building Strong Families at University Settlement. “Show them this picture tonight, and I will see differently.”
“He's a good dad,” said Alina. “He always do stuff with me.”
Keynote speaker Dr. Walter Woods, of University of Maryland Eastern Shore, spoke on the importance of positive, adult male role models and literacy.
“They center me and they give me a purpose,” said Woods, who drove eight hours from Maryland to dance with his daughter, Xaniya, an eighth grader at Warner Girls Leadership Academy.
“It makes me feel really important. I already knew he loved me, but now I know even more,” said Xaniya.
“I told my daughters when they were little that I am your first boyfriend,” said Walter. “So whatever guy comes at them, they have to measure up to me. So I want my morals, my values to stick with them.”
“In the back of my head whenever a boy approaches me I'm like, I got to remember what my dad is telling me, I'm like come on now,” said Xaniya. “They are pretty much nowadays only for one thing, and my dad is like education is first. Then everything else is second.”
Words all the dads on the dance floor would be happy to hear.
“If she has a boyfriend in the future, I hope it's a good one that would support her like I would,” said Alvin.
The event was coordinated and made possible through the work of parents and partners of the Broadway Slavic Village MyCom/ P-16 initiative.
MACEDONIA, Ohio -- In that $4 box of Girl Scout cookies, how much of the money do you think the girls get to keep?
About $0.70 on average. So where is your money really going?
We found Girl Scouts at the Southpark Mall selling thin mints, samoas and dosidos.
"We are selling a lot over here," said scout Lindsey Ruda.
Their goal is 2,000 boxes. Once they hit it, the troops pick from several different prizes.
"We're trying to raise money to go to the Amish country and hang out at the hotel and have breakfast," said Ruda.
The going rate is $4 a box, but only $.64 stays with the girls at first.
"It depends on how many cookies you initially sell," said Ruda. "The more you sell in the first order, the more you make off each box."
$1.20 goes toward the cost of the cookie.
$1 goes toward membership and troop support.
$.70 on average will go toward the actual troops.
$.58 will go toward the programs and camps.
$.37 will go toward administration.
$.15 will go for the volunteers.
"There's 112 councils in the United States and our council is one of the ones that gives the most back," said Kim Graves, director of marketing communications and recruitment of Girl Scouts North East Ohio.
Graves says the other $3.30 still serves our communities.
"All of the money that we earn from Girl Scout cookie sales stay here in Northeast Ohio. Some of the money will go to the camps and financial aid," said Graves. "We want to make sure that everyone who wants to go, it is affordable for them. They learn important skills that will help them throughout life.They learn decision-making, money management, people skills, business ethics, goal-setting."
"It's a lot of fun for the girls," said Ruda. "They enjoy it. You get to do a lot of camping, and a lot of fun things, a lot of friendships."
If you still want to support the Girl Scouts of Northeast Ohio, you have until March 20 when the troops stop selling.
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