Dads can celebrate and appreciate each others’ parenting work on the night of June 15, 2024 — Fathers Eve.

The annual event, now in its 13th year, is meant to allow dads to have a chance to show gratitude and support for one another. This differs from Father’s Day as that holiday is for families to honor dads.

Since 2012, groups of fathers have gathered formally or informally in public or private spaces to swap parenting stories, offer support to each other and help foster a positive fathering environment. John Francis, a co-organizer of our Twin Cities Dads Group in Minnesota, began the tradition by inviting several dad friends to his house for beers, billiards and swapping stories about fatherhood. Fathers Eve is now recognized as an official “national day” by the National Day Archives.

Over the years, scores of celebrations have been held annually in backyards and businesses across the United States and a few international locations. The organization has also helped raise thousands of dollars for parenting and children’s organizations.

Where to celebrate Fathers Eve 2024

Several City Dads chapters will be among those hosting Fathers Eve 2024 events (click city to find event listing and RSVP) :

• Charlotte, N.C.
• Chicago
• Cincinnati
• Columbus, Ohio
• Denver
• Fresno, Calif.
• Los Angeles
• Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minn. – Twin Cities
• New York City – Port Washington
• Phoenix

(DISCLOSURE: City Dads Group has been a longtime sponsor for Fathers Eve, donating money and helping organize events through our chapters. Fathering Together is also a sponsor.)

A complete listing of Fathers Eve 2024 events can be found on its website.

Virtual celebration available online

If you can’t attend a Fathers Eve 2024 event in person, don’t despair. A virtual online live-streaming of celebrations will again be held this year. A live stream replaced in-person events in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and has supplemented organized celebrations since.

The online event starts at 7 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on June 15. The countdowns to the annual celebratory toast start shortly before the start of 8 p.m. local time in each U.S. time zone. You can sign up for the live stream to share at your event or watch individually.

Pediatric cancer is in the sights of City Dads Group this June as we team with the Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF) to raise money to help find a cure.

City Dads Group chapters in a dozen cities from coast-to-coast will set up stands between June 2 and 10 to sell lemonade and take donations to go to the national nonprofit’s work funding research to find better treatments and cures for childhood cancer.

Details, including times and locations for each group’s event this year, will be made available on the City Dads Group’s ALSF fundraising page or on the group’s Meetup page (see list below).

City Dads Group previously raised funds with Alex’s Lemonade Stand in 2016, but this year’s model should be even sweeter thanks to our ongoing partnership with Plum Organics. The nation’s leading organic baby food brand is helping our chapters out with supplies for their stands, and will provide snacks and samples for patrons.

• Boston – June 8
• Charlotte – June 4
• Chicago – June 9
• Dallas – June 9
• Fresno, Calif. – June 7
• Kansas City – June 2
• Los Angeles- June 10
• Madison, Wisc. – June 8
• New York City – June 5
• Portland, Ore. – June 9
• San Francisco – June 2
• Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul), Minn – June 2

City Dads Group and Plum Organics® will again work together to help nourish children and assist families in need on Giving Tuesday, an international day of helping others that follows Thanksgiving.

On Nov. 28, City Dads in 12 U.S. metropolitan areas will help pack and distribute food donated by Plum Organics, the nation’s leading organic baby food brand. Plum Organics last year for Giving Tuesday donated more than 24,000 meals to charitable organizations chosen by our chapters in Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco and the Minneapolis/St. Paul.

** Watch video of our 2016 Giving Tuesday work **

“We are proud to expand our Giving Tuesday partnership with Plum Organics to support nonprofits that support families in need across the United States,” said Matt Schneider, co-founder of City Dads Group. “Our dads are very proud to be able to provide time and much needed food to our communities.”

Where we are helping on Giving Tuesday

Our members will help pack, stock and distribute the Plum Organics donation and perform other volunteer work to the following organizations:

• Boston/Providence Dads Group have chosen to assist the Rhode Island Community Food Bank, which will distribute the food through its 160 agency partners that reach 57,000 individuals monthly.
• The Charlotte Dads Group plans to work with Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina, which distributed more than 50 million pounds of food and household items throughout its 19 county service region during its most recent fiscal year.
• Chicago Dads Group will assist clients of Palatine Township Food Pantry, an organization that serves an average of 345 families each month.
• Dallas Dads Group has chosen to work with Hope Supply Co. which assists 1,100 homeless children in North Texas every day.
• The Fresno Dads Group will work with Community Food Bank, which serves more than 280,000 people each month through a variety of programs.
• Kansas City Dads Group has chosen to help Harvesters Community Food Network, a regional food bank serving northwestern Missouri and northeastern Kansas that assists more than 620 not-for-profit agencies.
• The Los Angeles and NYC Dads Groups will again help GOOD+ Foundation, a nonprofit group that works with a network of more than 100 community-based organizations across the country to distribute essentials to families in need.
• Madison Dads Group in Wisconsin will assist the Goodman Community Center, which helps income-limited families through a food pantry, before- and after-school programs and other services.
• Our Portland Dads Group will work with the Oregon Food Bank, a central hub for supplying food pantries across the entire Pacific Northwest state.
• San Francisco Dads Group has selected the SF-Marin Food Bank to be its partner. The nonprofit provides more than 100,000 meals a day through 250 area food pantries.
• Twin Cities Dads Group in Minnesota will volunteer with Second Harvest Heartland, one of the nation’s largest food banks.

“At Plum, our mission is to nourish little ones with the very best food from the very first bite. Back in 2013, we founded The Full Effect® program to extend our mission to little ones in need. In America, 1 in 5 children is food insecure. That’s approximately 13 million kids,” Mandy Geisler, senior marketing manager at Plum Organics, said in a written statement. “The global giving movement Giving Tuesday is a great platform to raise awareness about this issue. By partnering with City Dads Group again this year, we’re able to bring organic baby food donations to organizations in twelve of their locations nationwide.”

City Dads Group members and others who are not able to participate in any of these events in person can follow our work on Twitter and Instagram. By using hashtags #PlumParents and #GivingTuesday, you can see pictures of our dads across the country supporting families in need.

Giving Tuesday is a global day of outreach dedicated to helping others. It’s meant to kick-off the holiday season and inspire people to collaborate in improving their local communities. Since its 2012 inception, tens of thousands of organizations worldwide annually participate in the day.

This will be the fourth consecutive year City Dads outposts around the country have participated in Giving Tuesday activities, and the second that Plum Organics has served as our national sponsor.

DISCLOSURE: Plum Organics is partnering with City Dads Group for the Giving Tuesday work mentioned above through a donation of goods and financial compensation.

The West Coast has become a little more daddly with the addition of the Fresno Dads Group to the heart of California’s Central Valley.

The Fresno chapter is the third California outpost for City Dads Group, following Los Angeles and San Francisco.

You can find the Fresno Dads Group on these social media channels:

• Meetup (go here to join the group)
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram

Shane Sherman and Steven Stankivicz serve as co-organizers of the Fresno Dads Group, the 23rd outpost of City Dads Group’s national support and social network. The group started several years ago as the Fresno Area Dads on Facebook.

Sherman, 44, a father of what he says are two “awesome, rambunctious boys,” is a California credentialed physical education teacher by profession and a certified sports massage therapist by trade.

“When my wife and I moved to Fresno, I was starving for adult interaction and places to take our kids. My wife discovered Fresno Area Dads on Facebook and suggested I join, which I did. I think I was the 59th member at the time,” he said. “Eventually, I started meeting more and more dads at parks, the zoo, play places all over the place. … Our group has grown from 59 members to almost 200 in the last three years.”

Stankivicz, 28, a father of what he calls “one sassy and beautiful 2-year-old girl,” has worked in the public safety industry for nine years, first for a large metro ambulance company and now as a police officer for a small foothill community.

Taking Fresno Dads to the next level

“I felt like I was ready to take the (Facebook) group to the next level but I needed some help to best serve the fathers in my community and that is why I decided to reach out to City Dads Group,” said Stankivicz, whose wife is expecting a second child in November. “Since Shane has been so active in the group I invited him to also join me in reaching out to City Dads Group. We are honored and very excited to be a part of the CDG and look forward to what the future holds for us.”

City Dads Group is a dynamic and diverse community of fathers redefining, by example, what it means to be a dad in the 21st century. Our national support network has more than 5,000 members based in and around major metropolitan U.S. cities including New York, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Founded in November 2008 in New York City as a way a handful of fathers could arrange playdates and outings with their children, the organization went national in 2014.