Fatherhood often means showing up for small moments: driving in a carpool, flipping pancakes or getting a spider off the ceiling. But sometimes there are grand gestures, too, like the dad who walked 30 miles through hurricane wreckage to make it to his daughter’s wedding. Or the extraordinary single foster father who has taken in 47 children and adopted six.
For Father’s Day, here are some stories of dads who went the extra mile, left it all on the field and made the clutch shot (did we do that right?)
The dad who fostered 47 children
Peter Mutabazi survived homelessness and abuse as a child in Uganda. His painful past has given him purpose, he said, and has propelled him to foster more than 47 children as a single father in North Carolina. He works to give vulnerable children the love, stability and hope he never had growing up, he said.
“I know there’s hope because I am the example. I overcame,” he said.
Mutabazi is also an advocate for foster care reform, and he speaks out about the importance of giving foster children a sense of belonging. He chronicles his family life on Instagram in the hope, he said, of encouraging people to consider opening their homes to children in need.
“I will foster until the child has somewhere to go,” he said. “If there is no one else, I want to be their final dad.”
The dad who trekked nearly 30 miles to walk his daughter down the aisle
When Hurricane Helene ripped through roads across Tennessee and brought traffic to a screeching halt, David Jones refused to miss his daughter’s wedding. He got out of his car and trekked nearly 30 miles through debris, floodwater, mud and darkness. He made it just in time to walk his daughter down the aisle.
“I just kept putting one foot in front of another,” Jones said of his five-hour walk in October 2024.
Jones decided not to tell his daughter about his long and arduous journey until after the ceremony, as he didn’t want her to worry about him on her wedding day.
“It was not surprising to me at all that he would take those measures,” his daughter said.
The dad who sends letters to strangers to offer support
Buz Ecker leads a volunteer-run group called the “Dad Letter Project,” which sends notes of encouragement and support to hundreds of strangers seeking a father figure.
The project began after Ecker’s daughter, Rosie Paulik, posted a viral TikTok asking if people would like to receive a letter from her dad, and the response was overwhelming. Ecker, a retired professor, had spent more than two decades writing letters to his daughter when she was at camp, college and beyond.
Rosie’s spontaneous TikTok quickly grew into a larger effort to reach people looking for guidance and comfort from a fatherly voice. More than 1,200 people have requested letters, and Ecker has amassed a growing team of volunteer dads to help him write to everyone.
The dad who won a Grammy with his daughter
When musician Harold Simmons II and his 8-year-old daughter, Aura, started making music together about four years ago, they weren’t expecting to produce award-winning songs. They were shocked and overwhelmed when their album, “Harmony,” won a Grammy in January for Best Children’s Music Album, making Aura the youngest Grammy winner in history.
Their album blends educational children’s music with themes of self-expression, love and community. Simmons said they will continue to collaborate as a father-daughter duo, but he’ll let Aura take the lead on future ideas.
The dad who adopted the daughter he never knew he had
Jennifer Skiles, 46, had spent her whole life searching for her birth father, scouring through DNA databases and records for her biological family.
Skiles, who lives in Knoxville, Tennessee, was adopted at 3 years old, and began looking for her biological parents when she was 19.
When she finally tracked down Paul Lonardo in 2022, she said his voice was instantly familiar — “like I had known him my whole life.”
Although Lonardo, 66, was stunned to learn Skiles existed, he welcomed her into his life without hesitation. They have built a strong relationship, and Skiles also became close with three siblings she didn’t know she had. Skiles was delighted when Lonardo asked if he could formally adopt her to make their bond official.
“It was just so exciting,” Skiles said. “I knew I loved him.”
“We’re family; you can never have too much of that,” her father said. “It wasn’t hard to make the decision that she would be part of our family.”
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