Welcome to DADS with MELONS

Charles was inspired in 2018 by his wife, Adilen Perez, who was 39 weeks pregnant with their first child and ran a 5k race. Adilen and Charles, avid 5k runners, were signed up to run in the Watermelon 5k, held every July 4th in Winter Park, FL. Adilen did not let a little thing, like growing a human being, keep her from doing what she so thoroughly enjoyed, even running two miles less than 24 hours before Ricky was born, a couple of weeks after the July 4th race. 

Adilen documented her growing human on Instagram, using appropriate fruit stickers in posts to compare the size of Little Ricky throughout her pregnancy. For the week of the Watermelon 5k Ricky was the size of, you guessed it, a watermelon. Unable to understand what it's like to run at 9 months pregnant Charles did what any dad-to-be would do, he picked out a large watermelon and ran alongside Adilen during the race. 

Charles and his watermelon struggled to keep up with Adilen and hers, but they both finished the 5k and Charles swore he would never do that again…until the next year when Adilen pushed Ricky in the stroller and Charles again ran the Watermelon 5k lugging a large melon. 

The following year Charles, Adilen, and Ricky relocated to Clermont where the inaugural Freedom 5k was held on July 4th, 2020. To honor his wife, who continues to inspire him with her superhuman feats, and for the shear silliness of it (because that's what dads do) Charles picked up the watermelon again and started a new tradition in their new hometown, which continues to this day, though now he has company in fellow dad, PJ Riker. Each year on July 4th, participants and spectators can kickoff their Independence Day watching Charles and PJ waddle through the streets of Clermont toting a couple of large watermelons.