By JAYLINN PFEIFER
For Hays Post

The Daddy and Me program, a part of the Early Childhood Connections, will be having their next group experience at Big Creek Crossing in Hays on April 14. The event will be in conjunction with the annual Family Fun Fest.

“This program got started when me and a colleague of mine went to the National Fatherhood Training in 2005 and the initiative of the program was to get fathers more involved in children’s lives,” said Lila Montgomery, Disabilities and Education Coordinator with Early Childhood Connections.

Daddy and Me began in 2006 when the fathers who were a part of the Early Childhood Connections came up with the name. Their philosophy is that if fathers and mothers are more involved in children’s lives, the children will do better in school and other areas of development. The children are also known to be more adventurous.

“Last Saturday, we visited the Hays airport where the kids got to get on the Eagle Med helicopter and someone explained what all of the buttons did and what was the purpose of the helicopters,” Montgomery said.

The past places the program has visited includes the Hays Regional Airport, Hays Fire Department, Sternberg Museum of Natural History, Hays Public Library, FHSU’s Gross Memorial Coliseum and Precision Valley Golf Center. The program starts in September of every year and goes until the summer of the following year, where there is a break until the next September.

“When we first started out, we had our own events but then we got input from the families and they wanted to have more events in the community, so we did,” Montgomery said.

This event is open to the community and for more information visit the Early Childhood Connections Facebook page or visit haysparents.com.