This time two years ago, nearly 300 fathers and daughters danced the night away at Brown County Parks and Recreation’s annual Daddy-Daughter Dance.
The dance was set to return this year, but hopeful attendees will have to wait a few more months before they hit the dance floor.
This year’s event was originally scheduled for Feb. 9, but parks and rec Director Mark Shields said that he ran into trouble trying to secure volunteers for the date.
The subject was discussed at the January parks and rec board of directors meeting on Jan. 26. Shields said at the meeting that a number of previous volunteers had either moved away, were unavailable or did not want to participate due to COVID-19 concerns.
Parks and rec is now looking at potential dates in August of this year for the dance, but that is dependent on the availability of the event center at Seasons Lodge.
The theme has been centered around the time of year the dance has been held since its origin in 2014: the Friday before Valentine’s Day. The original date for 2022 was on a Wednesday due to the Seasons Lodge event cente being booked on Friday, Feb. 11.
If the event is held in August, Shields said they may need to think of another theme. It was suggested to postpone the event to October or November, but Shields said it was too close to the Daddy-Daughter Dance in February of 2023.
Dancing is not the only fun to be had at the event. In 2020, all girls received a gift bag when they arrived, ate a variety of snacks and played different games set up in the room.
There were also face painting and photo booths open for participants.
The first Daddy-Daughter Dance had only eight participants. In 2020, parks and rec program specialist Andy Rudd said the event “ballooned up” over the years prior.
The cap of the 2019 dance was 250. The cap was met two weeks before the event in 2020, so it was raised to 300.
Rudd said in 2020 that parks and rec likes to try different programming to see what might work in the county. The dance “really, really stuck,” he said, local girls becoming excited about it and making it the “most popular” event.
