LOVELAND, Colo.—Loveland resident Robert Batie told his 4-year-old son, Kai, that he needed the youngster’s help folding a paper airplane using a one-page instruction sheet. “Does that look like the picture?” Batie asked.
Kai nodded.
Batie began a fold.
“Finger all the way down,” he said. “Go, go, go.”
The airplane finished, Batie told Kai to check if the coast was clear before flying it.
“Throw it,” Batie said to Kai’s giggles as he was off running around the cafeteria at Conrad Ball Middle School, plane at the ready.
Batie was one of 60 fathers who attended the kickoff celebration Jan. 28 welcoming a new group, We Are Awesome Dads, or WeRAD.
“I wanted to meet some of the dads of my son’s friends,” Batie said.
WeRAD was organized by four fathers of children in the Thompson Integrated Early Childhood Program, which includes Head Start, the Colorado preschool program and the district’s special education preschool program.
WeRAD wants to encourage men to be positive role models and be more involved in the lives of their children, many of whom are at risk or have disabilities.
“Young children need their dads,” said Jane Everett, family and community partnership coordinator for the Thompson Integrated Early Childhood Program. “We know dads have an influence on how their children develop and grow.”
Two of the founders of WeRAD, Kevin Jones and Kevin Turbey of Loveland, are on the board of directors for the Thompson Integrated Early Childhood Program.
“We would go to all of these meetings, and we would never see dads show up,” Jones said. “It was always Mom.”
Jones and Turbey also noticed that many of the preschoolers who live in foster or single-parent homes with their mothers lack a male role model in their lives, Jones said.
In late 2009, Turbey came up with the idea for a father-focused group and told Jones, Loveland resident Phil Means and Fort Collins resident Tim Bork, who agreed to help in the planning effort. They recruited another four fathers to join the group.
“We thought it would be nice to put together a group where dads wouldn’t feel outnumbered going to a meeting with all women,” Jones said.
The WeRAD founders are seeking sponsorships to provide monthly activities for fathers and their children, with mothers welcome to attend.
The founders and a core group of members will meet regularly to plan the activities.
“It gives these kids and dads a lot more opportunities,” Jones said, adding that fathers who may not be able to afford entrance fees or other costs for the activities are given the opportunity to get involved, he said.
“The main goal is for us to do stuff outside, go hiking or organize a bicycle ride, stuff that doesn’t cost a lot of money,” Turbey said.
Turbey and Jones plan to expand WeRAD to kindergarten in fall 2010, followed by elementary school, then the upper grades, along with Fort Collins, they said.
“We’ve been getting a pretty positive response,” Everett said. “Dads need to have activities available to them and their children that are appealing to them, like there are activities that are appealing to moms and their children.”
