Be a Buddy to your Fellow Daddy this Father’s Day!
Words by Danica Tria
DadBudPH, one of the country’s largest and most active dad groups on Facebook was established a time when parent communities were dominated by moms.
The community—powered by dads and father figures of diverse ages, socioeconomic groups, and locations—brings to life subjects associated with fatherhood such as parenting, family, homes, humor, entertainment, food, fitness, technology, pop culture, and more.
DadBudPH was founded by advertising entrepreneur and food content creator Joey Ong in 2019 and what started out as just a way to seek counsel from more experienced dads has gradually expanded and recently reached gold with over 50,000 members—an astonishing 90% of whom are extremely engaged on a daily basis.
“Back then, I didn’t know much about being a dad and there weren’t a lot of communities which brought dads together the way mom groups did,” Joey said. “DadBudPH became a platform to share personal experiences, get inspired, and really just spread the good vibes of fatherhood.”
And to celebrate this golden milestone, a new and exciting program called DadBud Academy was launched to empower dads nationwide, gathering each in a series of physical events to learn, enjoy, inspire and be inspired for a better future. This creative approach to celebrate and inspire fathers year-round aims to break stereotypes and defy the norms. It’s daddy’s time to take the center stage.
The celebration kickstarted with a pilot event entitled “Dad Talks” which was held at Robinsons Galleria’s Robinsons Movieworld and Playlab, attended by established dads shared their stories to inspire other dads.
The New Channel, along with nearly 200 dads and their families attended the event as guests including TV personality Kim Atienza, former seminarian Romulo Velasco, Filipino-American actor Troy Montero, “ausome” parenting dad Ron Ramos, Potato Corner founder Jorge Wieneke, and Emmanuel Manansala and Ed Embradora from LIV Ministries grazed the stage to share personal stories about how they came to be who they are today.
In the coming weeks leading up to this year’s Father’s Day, The DadBud Academy will be presenting a series of exciting and fun-filled events, including an immersive high-tech play session at Robinsons Galleria’s PlayLab, an enjoyable activity covering financial literacy for the whole family, and more. All these will be complemented with a mouth-watering food festival run by dads of small-to-medium businesses.
“We just had our first ever Dad Talk, part of the DadBud Academy series. We’re inviting dads to share their stories about fatherhood, about finance, about fitness, their journey to the wonderful life of being a dad. And this is just the start. It’s going to be a series. We are going to have one every month until June, until the Father’s Day. It’s (the topics and activities) going to be ranging from the importance of play, to wealth, health, and of course a feast para sa mga dad na mahihilig kumain. So, I’m inviting everyone to stay tuned for the different activities we have in stored for DadBud.”, Joey tells TNC as he extends an invitation to every dad to participate in the festivities and celebrate with their families and fellow fathers.
This Father’s Day, The New Channel, together with the whole DadBudPH community invites every dad to “be a buddy to your fellow daddy”.
Stay tuned, daddies!
And for those who haven’t yet, join the DadBudPH community on Facebook.