Celebrating dads with a day on the fairway. The Department of Children and Families (DCF) honored fathers of all kinds by treating them to a round of golf Wednesday.
The second annual Best Dad By Par golf event aims to bring dads together and highlight the important roles of father figures, whether they are biological, adoptive or foster parents.
One father and his son shared a milestone moment.
“First shot, never played golf before ever!” Rodney Moore, of Ansonia, said after teeing off.
Get top local stories in Connecticut delivered to you every morning. >Sign up for NBC Connecticut's News Headlines newsletter.
Both Moore and his son Roman, 11, took their first stroke ever on the golf course.
“After I seen him hit it so hard, now I think I could hit it very, very, very, very hard,” Roman said.
They spent the day side-by-side at Best Dad By Par.
Local
“I’m so honored to be invited here this year, and I'm glad that I have my little one here with me to enjoy it,” Rodney Moore said.
About 75 dads from across the state played nine holes, and enjoyed breakfast and lunch at Laurel View Country Club in Hamden, which also sponsored the event.
“Dads play just as critical, a critical and valuable role in the parenting of children,” Michael Williams, DCF deputy commissioner, said. “This is our way of saying that we celebrate fatherhood and we felt celebrate dads who are doing it.”
Rodney Moore says that goes for both biological dads and foster parents.
“We know that when a father is involved, it impacts every child that impacts every household, for the better,” he said.
He knows both roles well. The DCF employee is fostering a two-year-old through kinship care. He says his three other kids are stepping up.
“Our foster child is in love with them,” Moore said.
They are happy to act as older siblings.
“I think it's cool, because you know, he helps other kids,” Ramon said. “Now that we have a kid that's really, that we're accepting her to our family, I think it's pretty cool.”
Christopher Wellar, a dad from Oxford, also knows firsthand how welcoming a foster child can light up a family.
“It gives us an opportunity to have a daughter while helping out a family that's in need of help, at the moment,” he said.
Wellar, his wife, and his two sons have been caring for a little girl since she was just two days old.
“She's a princess, she really is,” he said.
Now, they are preparing for the toddler to reunite with her biological family.
“It is bittersweet,” Wellar said. “She's going to be reunified, most likely tomorrow. Very sad, but at the same time happy. She made all of our lives wonderful for the last two years.”
For many golfers, the event marked their first time on the green.
“They were in need of golf clubs, because they had a bunch of golfers who have never played before,” Mark Ashby, general manager at Golf Galaxy in Meriden said.
Golf Galaxy donated a dozen sets of clubs for the day so the players could tee up.
A new challenge: but when it comes to being a dad, these men are aces. They are also supportive and encouraging of anyone else thinking of stepping into a father’s shoes.
“I would say, go for it,” Wellar said. “I wouldn't take anything back.”
