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Getting ready for the big dance
This Saturday night at least 24 area fathers and their "daughters" will take to the dance floor in the transformed gymnasium in the Franklin P. Norman City/County Community Center for Nevada's first ever Father-Daughter Dance from 6:30 to 8.
"I hope we fill the gym. I really do," Dana Redburn, parks and recreation director said Monday afternoon.
"I think it's a good thing for little girls," she said.
She said they will start decorating the gym about noon on Saturday and by "6:30 have transformed the gym into something to be proud of."
And some not-so little girls.
Redburn said that the dance is open to fathers and their daughters from newborn and up.
Redburn said that most of the young ladies are in the third, fourth and fifth grades.
But there are also several women in their 30s and 40s who are being escorted to the dance by their fathers.
One woman in her 30s told Redburn that she and her father go to Stockton for similar events.
"How many things do you have to do with your daughter when you are grown?" Redburn said.
Redburn said that this event should be fun for everyone, whether they can dance or not, since they are planning to have 12 to 13 games during the 90-minute dance.
Things like the father with the most hair and least hair. The tallest dad or the father who came the farthest for the dance, the craziest dance and the limbo.
And a soda drinking contest where the father and his daughters stick straws into a can of soda to see who drinks it the fastest.
And she said there will be prizes for the winners of the contests, most of which have been donated.
Redburn said the idea for the Father-Daughter Dance came from her and from Johnathan Marley, who is the new human resources director at 3M.
Redburn said that she had held a similar event at the Carthage YMCA and Marley moved here from Seattle, Wash., where there was a similar event that one of his daughters enjoyed enough to insist that if there was not one here, she wanted her father to start one.
She said that the first time she met Marley he had a written description of a similar event to what she had in mind.
Redburn said that when they started putting the dance together, Marley suggested that Lance Christie and Vince Casell, both from 3M would be good members, and Redburn recruited Carol Branham, Denise Hedges and Gina Ensor.
"We started meeting in July and have met every month since then," she said.
Most of their refreshments have been donated as have the decorations they are using. If a father attended the hospital or chamber gala the decorations may look familiar.
"It really turned into a community effort," she said. "Nobody has turned me down."
Natalie Eberhard, who owns Iron Brand, "never batted an eye" when asked to provide professional photography services for the dance.
Marlene Scotten, whom they hired as their DJ for the night "wanted to do whatever she could."
Redburn said they held a pie sale to raise the money to pay for the DJ.
And to provide nice dresses for any girl needing one, she got the Laurels to help collect some and then members of the Sigma Eta Zeta sorority helped by staffing the dress exchange.
And if anyone has a disco ball, or knows where to find one, Redburn is still looking for one to hang over the dance floor to finish transforming the gym into a magical place suitable for this dance.