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.

Fathers Eve, the annual event for dads to celebrate each other with each other, is back in 2022. However, its founder wants to add a new twist: community engagement and family participation.

Event founder John Francis said he wants those planning the pre-Father’s Day celebrations to add a local service project to their parties. These should be something that family members, friends and neighbors can participate in.

“It can be as simple a taking a garbage bag in hand and picking up trash,” Francis said in an interview. “While your out doing it, talk to people about doing good. It doesn’t have to be an expansive or complicated project to accomplish the goal.”

For example, members, families and friends of Minnesota’s Twin Cities Dads Group, which he is a part of, are helping rehabilitating a playground the afternoon of June 18. Later, they will head to a nearby brewery for the traditional toast for fatherhood on the night before Father’s Day.

“Most dads want to do the right thing when given the opportunity to,” he said. “We hope to encourage this and share this with our wives, children, friends and community. This way we expand into something bigger and better.”

One group the organization hopes to attract is father figures, even if they are not dads themselves. After reading stories about the problems of children who grew up fatherless, Francis began thinking about getting other men involved with Fathers Eve through community projects. He hopes their actions could help create a “showcase” of inspiring male role models for others, especially children.

Charity component dropped

Fathers Eve started in 2012. Francis invited several dad friends to his house for beers, billiards and swapping stories about fatherhood. The hope: support for each other in effort to become better parents. Over the years, scores of celebrations have been held annually in backyards and businesses across the United States and a few internationally locations.

“Gathering the night before Father’s Day gives dads a chance to spend time with each other to focus on sharing ideas, supporting what it means to be better dads, making stronger connections, all while doing something good for the community,” the father of two told City Dads back in 2017.

Fathers Eve previous encouraged event organizers to include a charity component that assists a parenting or children’s cause. However, fundraising for others proved to be difficult.

“We don’t want to be just another charity organization. We want to be role models for family and community,” Francis said in explaining the shift.

Where to celebrate Fathers Eve 2022

Several City Dads chapters will be among those hosting Fathers Eve 2022 events (click city to find event listing and RSVP) :

• Charlotte, N.C.
• Chicago
• Cincinnati
• Denver
• Kansas City, Mo.
• Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minn. – Twin Cities
• New York City – Harlem and Port Washington
• Orlando

(DISCLOSURE: City Dads Group is a national sponsor for Fathers Eve 2022.)

A complete listing of Fathers Eve 2022 events can be found on its website.

If you can’t attend an event, don’t despair. An online live streaming of celebrations will take place on Zoom and Facebook Live.

A live stream replaced in-person events in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and supplemented last year’s celebrations. In 2022, it will be simplified to mostly a brief welcome and countdown, Francis said.

The countdowns to the annual celebratory toast will start shortly before the start of 8 p.m. in each U.S. time zone, starting with Eastern time, on June 18. You can sign up for the live stream to share at your event or watch individually.

With COVID-19 restrictions loosening and infection rates dropping, Fathers Eve 2021 — the pre-Father’s Day celebration of fatherhood — will once again feature in-person gatherings but also keep the livestream countdown it debuted last year in wake of the pandemic.

Fathers Eve, brainchild of Twin Cities Dads member John Francis, started in 2012. He invited several of his dad friends to his house to drink beers, shoot some pool and swap stories about fatherhood while offering each other support in their effort to become better parents. A charity component is often included in the festivities that assists a parenting or children’s cause. Children’s Miracle Network hospitals is a national recipient this year, but local charities sometimes benefit from those events. Over the years, scores of celebrations have been held annually in backyards, bars and restaurants across the United States. A few even took place internationally in places as far away as Costa Rica and London.

(DISCLOSURE: City Dads Group is a national sponsor for Fathers Eve 2021 as it has been for the past several years.)

After a banner year in 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic start in March 2020 forced Francis to quickly pivot from in-person events to a livestream program. A roughly 40-minute live video feed of programming, hosted from his garage where the first event was held nine years ago, was broadcast for each of the four mainland U.S. time zones. Each culminated in a local 8 p.m. toast to the joys of being a dad.

+ Find a local Fathers Eve 2021 event +

“I’m NOT a tech guy, but we figured it out, got some help and it was fun,” Francis said in an email interview with City Dads Group. “We missed the larger group and seeing others online (but) we DID have 7,000+ views, so that’s a win!”

With the virus threat subsiding throughout most of the United States, Francis said he is expecting about 30 locations to host in-person events, though he is hoping the get the number as high as 100. Local City Dads chapters have been big supporters of Fathers Eve events in the past, and several have already committed to participating.

Buoyed by the success of last year’s livestream, Francis said he is keeping it to anchor the in-person events and also bring in others unable or hesitant to attend a gathering this year.

For the Fathers Eve 2021 livestream, to be broadcast via Facebook Live, Francis said he aims to add some more humorous components, such as clips from comedians, and some new speakers as well as highlighting sponsors and fatherhood causes. Sponsors this year include Sports Clips haircuts (national) and IHeartRadio and ACE Hardware (both local).

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

Dear Playground Patron of the Adult Persuasion,

The playground at our local park remains a really great yet intimidating place for fathers like me. It’s a place where we get to have loud, crazy fun with our kids but it is often where we encounter frustratingly frequent reminders of how much gender roles and stereotypes about men and dads are entrenched in society.

To help you and all those of us who watch over our children (or others’ children) at these public spaces, I put together a guide so  you can understand what modern dads are thinking and experiencing. This guide could have been a lot longer but Bluey is on at noon and no good parent is going to miss watching that with his child!

1. Playground dads want to be there

We enjoy being actively involved in our children’s lives and do not want to shirk the responsibility of raising them.

2. Don’t assume we are unemployed or unemployable

Since the majority of modern households contain two working parents, dad likely came to the park today because mom is working and he has time off. Shift work, gig economy jobs, telecommuting, seasonal contracts, alternating parental work schedules — the trend for this is clear: Today’s working dads today trade off more primary caregiver hours with their partners.

3. If we are stay-at-home fathers, it is probably by choice

For the most part, men who become primary caregivers today want to be the primary caregiver. He made a conscious decision – along with his partner – to take that role for a reason: financial or otherwise. The “he can’t even get a job” dad stereotype is outdated and incorrect (see No. 2).

4. Playground dads aren’t looking for a hookup

Like most playground moms, playground dads have kids because we are already in committed relationships. We are not at the park on a Tuesday morning to find a date. We’re here to escape the house while the sun is shining, and let the kids burn off some energy. Yes, some playground dads are divorced or single, but that number is actually lower than in the general population. Call it the modern father factor: Capable dads who want to raise kids aren’t hitting the singles bars after work or the playgrounds while parenting.

5. We are tired

Our kids run us ragged. We also may have been up at 3 a.m. to care for the baby. Unless 3 a.m. was breastfeeding time, in which case we were up at 4 a.m. to change a diaper.

6. There’s a reason we aren’t looking our best today

See No. 5 above. Or we might have missed our whole self-care time today in between picking up 18,000 Legos and cleaning sweet potatoes out of things that were never designed to encounter sweet potatoes. We’ll shave tomorrow. Promise.

7. These kids might not even be all ours!

What?!? Why would a man take someone else’s kids to the park? We may be here because once our friends and family found out we were capable parents, they began asking us for help. At a playground recently, my sister-in-law handed me her baby while she went off to play with her 3-year-old. Of course, no one there knew I was holding my niece and not my daughter. Thank you though, my niece is pretty cute.

8. We’ve got this

Time and time again, dad friends tell me stories of strangers saying, “Oh, give me the child, you’re doing it wrong!” They’ve had their kids taken from strollers and even right out of their arms by someone who thinks they can parent better often because the child is crying. This gatekeeping has to stop.

9. Dads belong here as much as any mom

Still have a problem with me being here? Complain to my wife. She’ll really appreciate your call interrupting her staff meeting. She’s out there making headway in corporate America for women — making her daughter and family proud — and my active parenting contributes to her being able to succeed in her career. (BTW, you’d like her.)

10. We will be here next week

Yeah, this parenting thing takes a whole bunch of our time. Playground dads are cool with that. See you soon.

Signed,

That Dad at the Park Today

About the author

Chris Brandenburg, shown here with his daughter, August, is a husband, stay-at-home father and co-founder of Twin Cities Dads Group. He is also a member of the National At-Home Dads Network, and one time ate some reeeeeally spicy Chinese food.

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.

Your kid doesn’t like vegetables? Try serving her a medley of colorful, cut up veggies in a martini glass topped with a cookie and a little drink umbrella.

Making food fun, and letting children have pride and ownership in what they create in the kitchen are among the tips and tricks members of our Twin Cities Dads Group gave a local Minnesota television station on a special cooking segment in March.

Watch the whole thing and learn from Chris Brandenburg, John Francis and Keith Nagel (who brought along his two sons, Logan and Sawyer):

City Dads Group and Plum Organics® teamed to support children and families in need Nov. 29 by donating, packing and distributing food in seven U.S. locations as part of our Giving Tuesday outreach efforts. Watch this video, compiled by and produced by San Francisco Dad Group member Mike Heenan, to see our fathers in action:

Plum Organics, the nation’s leading organic baby food brand, donated more than 24,000 meals (almost three tons of food!) to charitable organizations chosen by City Dads Group chapters in Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco and the Minneapolis/St. Paul.

In addition:

• The Charlotte Dads Group donated to the Salvation Army angel tree and partnered with Trees Charlotte to plant 300 trees at a local middle school.
• Our Las Vegas group made a large donation of clothing, toys and grooming supplies to Safe Nest, a center that helps men, women, and children who are victims of domestic crisis.
• Our Chicago dads also packed food for the Feed My Starving Children nonprofit.
• The NYC Dads Group also helped sort and bundle clothes for 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.

Dads in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area of Minnesota now have a resource for advice on fatherhood, a network for setting up playdates and help meeting other fathers active in their kids lives — the Twin Cities Dads Group.

Twin Cities Dads Group becomes the 21th chapter of City Dads Group’s national network of fathers who support and socialize with each other with one goal in mind — become the best parent you can.

Find the Twin Cities Dads Group on:

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

The group will be led by John W. Francis, a work-at-home father of two daughters. The St. Paul resident who works as a retail franchising consultant is one of the creators of “Fathers Eve,” an event held the night before Father’s Day to raise awareness of the importance of being an engaged father as well as to support various dad-related charities. The Twin Cities event raised $12,000 in 2015 and is expanding nationally this year.

“I met the City Dads Group founders at the Dad 2.0 Summit in February 2016, and asked ‘Where we’re you when I was the only dad at the playground? The only dad at field trips, and the rest of it?'” he said. “I’m now very glad to know it’s out there and I can bring it to the Twin Cities.”

Chris Brandenburg will work alongside Francis as a co-organizer. The Twin Cities resident gave up his career managing big box retail stores to raise his daughter, now 6.

“I grew up on a family farm in South Dakota. So in a sense, I had two stay at home parents, both with full-time jobs,” he said. “I absolutely love being a stay-at-home dad, and yet I’ve found the challenges of being one were not what I expected. I want to start a City Dads Group to help others with those same challenges.”

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.

City Dads Group will join the effort to raise awareness and funds to battle childhood cancers by setting up an Alex’s Lemonade Stand in six U.S. metropolitan areas the weekend of June 11-12, 2016.

Our fathers in Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York City and Minneapolis-St. Paul will host the lemonade stands. All money raised will be donated to the Alex Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF) for its work funding research to find better treatments and cures for childhood cancer. Details, including times and locations for each city, can be found on the City Dads Group’s ALSF fundraising page.

“This is a great opportunity for our members and their families across the country to come together for an excellent cause close to all of our hearts,” said Lance Somerfeld, co-founder of City Dads Group.

The stands are City Dads Group’s contribution to Alex’s Lemonade Days, a three-day national event. The event grew from an initial front yard lemonade stand set up in 2000 by Alexandra “Alex” Scott, a 4-year-old Pennsylvania girl with neuroblastoma. Her first stand raised $2,000 and received national attention.

Since Alex’s 2004 death, “Alex’s Lemonade Days” are held every year over the same June weekend with an estimated 10,000 volunteers hosting more than 2,000 Alex’s Lemonade Stands around the nation making a difference for children with cancer. This year’s Alex’s Lemonade Days are set for June 10, 11 and 12.

Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, a registered 501(c)3 charity, has raised more than $120 million to date toward fulfilling Alex’s dream of finding a cure, funding more than 550 pediatric cancer research projects nationally.

“City Dads Group is honored to partner with ALSF to shine a light on the need to fund pediatric cancer research,” said Matt Schneider, co-founder of City Dads Group.

For more information on Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, visit AlexsLemonade.org.