Dances with Daddy: Fathers and daughters have a special night in Ephrata
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 6 years, 8 months AGO
Joel Martin/Columbia Basin Herald Cali Ann Alexander, almost 3, and her father Brian came over from Spokane for the Ephrata Daddy-Daughter Dance Saturday night.
Jeremy Block tries to keep up with his dance partners Kaydence, 10, right, and Matteha, 7, at the Daddy-Daughter Dance in Ephrata Saturday night.
Joel Martin/Columbia Basin Herald
Emma Clear, 4, takes a solo twirl on the dance floor at the beginning of the Ephrata Daddy-Daughter Dance Saturday.
Joel Martin/Columbia Basin Herald
Joel Martin/Columbia Basin Herald Bailee Morris, 10, and her dad Trevor take a turn around the dance floor at the Ephrata Daddy-Daughter Dance Saturday.
Joel Martin has been with the Columbia Basin Herald for more than 25 years in a variety of roles and is the most-tenured employee in the building. Martin is a married father of eight and enjoys spending time with his children and his wife, Christina. He is passionate about the paper’s mission of informing the people of the Columbia Basin because he knows it is important to record the history of the communities the publication serves. | February 10, 2020 10:50 PM
EPHRATA — The Ephrata Recreation Center was awash with cuteness as princesses and their escorts took to the dance floor Saturday night for the town’s annual Daddy-Daughter Dance.
The event is a popular one, said director of community services Traci Bennett.
“We started advertising about the first week of December and it sold out. It’s been sold out for about four weeks in advance. It’s a pretty popular event for this community.”
240 tickets in all were sold, Bennett said. She wasn’t sure how long the event had been going on, but thought it might have been 15, maybe 18 years.
In the past the event had included a dinner as well, she said, but this year they went with just a dance. Not having tables set up freed up a lot of space for dancing, she explained. The change was supposed to have taken effect last year, Bennett added, but a severe snowstorm made it necessary to cancel that dance altogether.
The event drew fathers of all ages and daughters anywhere from toddlers up to teenagers. Occasionally the wide age range has presented an unexpected difficulty, said Josh Johnson, Ephrata’s newly-minted recreation supervisor.
“In the past some of the older girls would go up and request a song that would be inappropriate but the deejay wouldn’t know,” he said, leading to the littler ones being exposed to music that they shouldn’t. That wasn’t a problem this year, he added.
Students from the Ephrata Key Club played, well, a key role in making the event a success.
“Key Club was in charge of refilling the refreshments, refilling the dessert, making sure that people aren’t stuffing their hands down the vases to get food, things like that,” said Johnson.
“We couldn’t do it without those kids. They were awesome. Those kids are solid,” Bennett said.
Besides the open dance floor, there was an opportunity for attendees to have their photo taken. Dancers also joined together to do the YMCA and the Chicken Dance.
“It takes a while to warm up,” Bennett said, because some dads are self-conscious on the dance floor. But as the evening ramped up the floor filled to capacity fairly quickly. Lots of attendees stayed for the full three hours, Johnson said.
“It’s great when Dad gets drug out there with his daughter,” Bennett chuckled. “It’s what dads do.”
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