A group of Alberta dads pose for the 2021 calendar. In the cute photos, they insist, "It's not dad bods, It's father figures."
The Alberta dads said they are donating the proceeds to a local charity that helps in nurturing the involvement of fathers in children's lives.
The Alberta dads pose for the 2021 calendar
The special calendar started as a joke among friends and after a few messages and planning, the project was successfully put together.
In an interview with CTV News Edmonton, the man behind the idea, Patrick Jean, shared "We were just in a Facebook group and during a conversation, it came up as a joke."
Convincing other Alberta dads pose for the 2021 calendar
In the same interview, it was shared by Jean that about half of the people in the calendar are his friends. The other half, however, are people from different groups like Man Project in Medicine Hat. Some of the models were just people Jean met online.
He said, "We just kind of talked together and we're all like-minded men and kind of like to be involved in different things and are pretty open-minded and not afraid of who we are."
Patrick also posed for the 2021 calendar. He is Mr. September of their project.
The Alberta dads thought that with everything that has been going on all over the world, their small act can put smiles on the faces of other people.
"It's not dad bods, It's father figures."
Aside from raising money, the Alberta dads pose for the 2021 calendar to also encourage dads to be comfortable with their bodies. As they say, "It's not dad bods, It's father figures."
Also, the group of Alberta dads are joined together by the advocacy of helping each other become good dads or even good men in general.
Jean shared, "We talked about our mental health, how to be good people in general, how we can help other men. It's not necessarily how to be better dads but just be better friends and communicate better and be able to talk about different things."
Jean added that they consider themselves as new aged dads.
Donating proceeds
The money which was raised by the Alberta dads will go to a charity which they felt embodies what they believe in, "We just found a charity that we thought touched most of us. We found Alberta Father Involvement Initiative."
The group is not involved with the organization, and as of their interview with CTV News Edmonton, they have not informed the organization yet.
Alberta Father Involvement Initiative is an organization that encourages not only father but also other men influencing children to responsible involvement in a child's life.
ADII is part of the Dad Central Canada network.
