ForeverDads, located at 109 Madison St., raised money to purchase the building that the organization has been renting for years.

“In terms of development, fatherhood, helping fathers become better fathers,” President Jason Wilhelm said. “Trying to equip those men with the necessary resources to be successful and this facility provides us the opportunity to better educate these young men.”

The event drew a crowd that Wilhelm said he was very pleased with.

Founder and board member James McDonald led the ceremony and shared a little bit about why this particular building holds a special place in his heart.

“I was raised by Frank and Ruth McDonald and they had 10 children,” McDonald, who founded the organization in 2006, said. “All our family, all our 10 kids went through this (school) and I went through this building so it’s quite an honor to purchase this building and use it for the services that we have.”

During the ceremony, many fathers who have graduated from ForeverDads’ programs were honored with a certificate and a pin to commemorate their achievements. Friends and family members gathered in support of the graduates.

Some of the graduates explained that the organization isn’t just about improving men and becoming a better father but also having a support system of fellow dads to count on and surround themselves with.

“It’s someone to count on, to be able to talk about my problems with and just listen,” Coulter McDermott, a ForeverDad graduate who took the floor with his infant daughter Ava Grace, said. “You guys know what I’m going through and I really appreciate that.”

Representatives from various companies were present at the event including the Executive Direct of The Ohio Commission on Fatherhood, Kimberly Dent. The OCF has helped fund ForeverDads with roughly $100,000 annually, McDonald said.

ForeverDads was founded in 2006 and garnered a lot of support from various people, organizations and public officials since its founding. McDonald said that the community has been instrumental to the success of the organization.

“The thing that has sustained us is the community,” McDonald said. “The community has embraced this idea and supported this idea, whether it was the schools where we have a program called ‘Breakfast for Dads,’ whether it’s been the courts where men, rather than sending these fathers through legal problems they will refer them to us, we have a boot camp for new dads … so the community has referred to us and even supported the purchasing of this new building.”

In a previous version of this story the community was described as being “detrimental” to the success of ForeverDads but the wording has since been changed to “instrumental.”