Father-Daughter Dance

Published 11:46 pm Friday, February 6, 2009

VALDOSTA — Despite having shoulder surgery on Jan. 20, John Anderson didn’t miss taking daughter McKinley, who is celebrating her 11th birthday today, to the 13th annual Father-Daughter Valentine Dance.

“It’s just a tradition,” John said of the Friday night event at the James H. Rainwater Convention Center. “We’ve done it since she was little. We can’t miss it.”

It was a first-time event for Jim Fitch and his 9-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, dressed in a pretty peach dress accented with a sparkling braclet.

“We hadn’t been before because my dad is gone every other week, and I was excited that he was going to be here this week,” Elizabeth said.

Fitch is a retired pilot from Moody Air Force Base who continues to fly for NetJets headquartered in Columbus, Ohio.

The pilot said he had enjoyed the dance “very much. I can see this is something to continue to come back to.”

This was the third year for Matt Courson of the Valdosta Fire Department to bring his daughters: Rhiannon, 8, Paige, 3, and Emma, 14 months, who had a cookie in both hands with evidence of her enjoying the refreshments on her face. All his little princesses were dressed in yellow.

“My daughters are the most important thing in my life,” Courson said. “They love coming to this and we’re going to keep on coming.”

Another Valdosta firefighter, Cantrell Cooley, brought daughter McKenna, who will be 2 in April.

“I wanted to bring her out for our first little date,” he said. “I love spending time with her.”

The annual dance draws dads and daughters from throughout the area, including a contingent from Madison, Fla., Friday night.

Benjie Dyal, pastor of New Home Baptist Church in Madison, brought his 6-year-old daughter, Cali, for the second year along with first-timers Stan Pickels with his 10-year-old daughter, Ashton, and Kevin Andrews with his two daughters, Summer, 10, and Kayla, 8. While Cali’s favorite part of the annual event is the Chicken Dance, Kayla’s the Cha-Cha Slide and Summer’s the slow dances, Ashton simply enjoyed “spending time with my daddy.”

The dance, which has become one of the top social events in Valdosta, is sponsored by First Presbyterian. The church’s new pastor and his wife, Jerry and Shannon Long, attended for the first time Friday night.

“One of the reasons I came to this church was because of the outreach ministries of the Father-Daughter Dance and our Break Bread Program, but Shannon and I are simply amazed at the turnout and the excitement of all the girls from the youngest to the oldest. Their eyes were sparkling and they were so proud to be out with their dad or grandad.”

Among the youngest was 2-month-old Dallen Bailey, who was being fed a bottle by her daddy, David, of Troupeville in Brooks County.

“She’s my precious little baby and I’m going to bring her to all of them until the day I die,” David said. “I wish she could dance (though). She (just) burped on me.”

Among the older girls was Jessie Stracener, 20, a student at Georgia Military College, who was accompanied by her dad, Gerry Stracener.

“We’ve been 10 years in a row,” Jessie said.

Her dad added, “We have a good time — anything we can do to spend some time together.”

Jessie laughed as she said, “I like to come out here and watch him dance.”

Jeff Stewart, who co-founded the dance with his wife Becky, said 4,246 tickets were sold for the two-day dance which will continue tonight.

“We had a real positive response from people ordering the tickets online for the first year this year,” he said.

Mark Homes and Corie Goss, who both work at ADM, came together to the dance and brought their daughters, Christy Holmes, 3, and Kyndall Goss, 4. Christy summed up the dance as “perfect.”