Christina Van Dorpe paints windows with her dad in Oxford

The first weekend in October was Father-Daughter Weekend at the Immaculate Conception Program in Oxford, MI and Mater Ecclesiae College in Greenville, RI. Dads travelled from around the country for a weekend of bonding time and fix-up.

Immaculate Conception Program

In Oxford, almost all of the IC girls’ dads made it for the weekend. The girls helped their dads with projects including painting, ‘winterizing’ the windows, fixing cars, and taking out air conditioner units. They also had Mass together, as well as ‘dinner with a show,’ with everyone’s talents on display!

Dads and daughters alike enjoyed the time together, and everyone appreciated their generous service! The Immaculate Conception Program is hoping to make a tradition of father-daughter weekends each semester.

See pictures of the weekend here!

Mater Ecclesiae College

Ten dads and two brothers from Ohio, Minnesota, Iowa, New Jersey, Georgia, Texas, and North Carolina arrived for MEC’s first father-daughter weekend. 

Nicolette Chmiel shares her experience.

Mater

	Trimming trees in Greenville

Ecclesiae College looks as if a hurricane had come through, taking down trees and branches, but leaving everything perfectly trimmed.  It was no hurricane…it was the first father-daughter weekend at MEC!  

I picked up my dad from the airport on Thursday night and we began the weekend with dinner and a ping pong game.  Dad won the best out of three, but I was the champion foosball player. No matter what we did that weekend, I just wanted to be with my dad. 

Bright and early the next day, we joined the other dads and daughters to work. Despite dreary weather, Aaron Sweers said that he couldn’t wait to get outside to trim the bushes - even in the pouring rain! 

But the first project was to assemble the new book shelves for the library. The pieces were scattered across the floor like Legos waiting to be constructed. With six men on the job, it didn’t take long; the lunch bell rang as we put the last shelf in place. One morning’s work saved our maintenance man five weeks of labor. 

At lunch, it was evident that damp weather did not dampen anyone’s spirit. The dads who had just met already seemed like old friends, joking and drinking beer. I enjoyed watching the interaction between the other dads, laughing at their jokes and happy to see my dad having a great time. 

There seemed to be a growing list of projects, so each dad with his daughter tackled a different job. While some dads and daughters painted a couple of rooms in the house, my dad and I moved some furniture into a storage shed. Rain did not stop Aaron and several others from getting the yard work done. Like boys at play with their favorite toys, a few dads with two chain saws, a couple of trimmers, and a hedge cutter worked wonders for our garden. At about 4:30, drenched and cold, we wandered into the house for hot chocolate. We cleaned up for evening Mass, then closed the night with dinner and a trip to the local ice cream parlor. 

All of the MEC students joined the activities with dads on Saturday. We started with Mass and breakfast, concluding with a performance by the Mater Ecclesiae choir. The rain stopped, so everyone worked in the yard. As the

	MEC dads and daughters

dads used the power toys - I mean, tools - the students hauled truckloads of branches to the brush pile. 

Dad and I stayed close to the pile to unload the trucks. To make things more exciting, we had a javelin throwing contest to see who could launch a stick the farthest. I won, but only because Dad threw a whole tree instead of a stick. Once the job was complete, we walked around to survey the work. Dad joked that the brush pile took over an acre of land; after all, we practically took down the forest.

The day’s work didn’t tire everyone. We put away our tools, and it was time to play. The father-daughter volleyball game made that night’s dinner well-earned. Some of the dads fixed an awesome meal of hamburgers and fried mashed potatoes, complete with apple crisp a la mode for dessert. 

We finished the weekend together with a bonfire and s‘mores.  Even though only ten of our dads came for the weekend, we were one family, working together, praying together, laughing together, and singing together.  Sunday afternoon my dad flew back to Ohio.  Although now we are states apart, the experience we shared keeps us close together.