By McKenna MIDDLETON, intern

The Mountain Avenue Elementary School auditorium was packed with fathers and daughters on Friday night. The occasion was the annual Daddy Daughter Dance hosted each year by one of the school’s Girl Scout troops. This year, troop 15851, a group of junior Girl Scouts about to bridge to cadet, worked to pull off an amazing night for their peers and their fathers.

“It took a long time to figure out the theme. Once we decided on hearts and flowers, it was easy to pick out the decorations and plan a fun night to spend time with our dads,” Girl Scout Molly Fleischer said.

The night began with dancing to upbeat music and snacking on desserts. All the food was prepared by the Girl Scouts and their parents. In addition to the home baked goods, a chocolate fountain was equally popular among dads and daughters. Each couple had their picture taken by Girl Scout troop leader and mother Sarah Rush. They then were able to make a frame to take home later.

The night was filled with a variety of fun competitions for both the girls and their fathers. The first was a paper airplane contest followed by a limbo competition. However, the girls spent the majority of the evening dancing and spending quality time with the man in their lives.

Later in the evening, Mountain Avenue Elementary student Kimmie Blood and her father David taught the group how to swing dance. The father-daughter duo loves to dance together and have given a short swing dance lesson to the dance attendees for the past three years.

At the end of a memory-making night, the dads and daughters left the dance with a souvenir – the copy of the picture they took at the beginning of the evening in the frame they made. The smiles on the faces of each pair were just as big when leaving the dance than coming in.

“We just had so much fun planning it. It’s an honor to have such a good turn out,” Rush said.

  Mckenna MIDDLETON