The Connecticut Department of Children and Families honored foster fathers at a golf event in Hamden Wednesday.

Dads hit the links at Laurel View Country Club with their adopted, fostered and biological kids as part of the second annual Best Dads By Par Golf Event.

Brett Steen says he and his wife have fostered more than 20 children over the last 12 years, including the two half-sisters he and his wife have adopted. Steen says he hasn't lost sight of what it means to be a bridge of stability in a child's life.

"To show them what they can do and are capable of, and to see them blossom and see them be successful," Steen said. "And it's beautiful to see them reunified with their birth parent."

Chris Weller has that same feeling. He has had eight foster kids in the last two years, in addition to Chris Jr.

"I feel great, I really do," Weller said. "It's a feeling you can't describe to see the happiness of spending time with you, and then the happiness of when their reunified with their parents...words can't describe it."

Rodney Moore works for DCF and has been fostering a family member who he soon hopes to adopt. He brought his biological son to the event and says any kind of father figure can have an impact on a child's life. "We minimize children getting into unfortunate or awkward circumstances when they have a father or father figure at home," said Moore.

The goal of fostering is to get the children into a permanent home. The number of kids in DCF care is down 30% since 2019.