Kids and dads dig St. Anthony’s planting day

The arrival of spring after a long, cold winter has also seen the flowering of the new St. Anthony’s Fathers Club, which held its first service event on May 17. Over 50 dads and kids gathered with shovels, rakes, and trowels, and the result was the new burst of color you see around the church grounds.

“Dad’s letting me get dirty!” one child exclaimed, as the families planted flowers in many of the existing empty beds around the grounds.

“I saw a worm!” announced another, as they dug out two new beds along the entryway to the main church.

But not everything about the event was hard work; after all the holes were dug and the plants were in, the families gathered for an old fashioned Whiffle Ball game alongside the parish center. Several kids had their first-ever introduction to baseball, and several Dads tried, and largely failed, to recapture their glory days. Most importantly, no one was hospitalized.

The glorious spring day was capped off by a BBQ, where the families ate hot dogs and hamburgers while embellishing their accomplishments in the flowerbeds and on the Whiffle Ball field. There was a debate about who actually won the game, which was finally settled by acting pastor Fr. Don Gannon, who noted, “Everybody won today — the kids had fun, the dads got fed and church grounds look great!”

The St. Anthony’s Fathers Club is a new group at the parish that aims to provide both service to the St. Anthony’s community and a social avenue for fathers to meet and get to know each other. The next event for the group is a general meeting at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, June 3, at Johnny’s Union Cafe on Long Beach Road. There will be an outing to a Long Island Ducks game with a pre-game BBQ and post-game fireworks on Saturday June 21, and an outdoor movie night on the St. Anthony’s grounds on Friday, July 25. They will also be volunteering at the Feast and at the visit of the St. Anthony’s relic on June 14. All dads (or granddads) in the parish are welcome to join the Fathers Club.