Thanks to all dads who serve as role models for all of us

As a complement to Mother’s Day, Father’s Day is a time to celebrate fatherhood and consider the importance of a father’s relationship with his children.

While the date varies from country to country, the holiday honors fathers and forefathers who either help raise their children or do so single-handedly.

The day is said to have originated with Sonora Dodd, who was listening to a Mother’s Day service in Washington state.

Dodd wanted the role of the father to be acknowledged. Her father, William Smart, was her inspiration; he raised her and her five siblings after her mother died in childbirth.
As a result, the first Father’s Day in Spokane, Wash., took place in June 1910.

It wasn’t until Lyndon B. Johnson that a presidential proclamation was signed declaring the third Sunday of June as Father’s Day in 1966.

And in 1972, President Richard Nixon established a permanent national observance of Father’s Day to be held on the third Sunday of June.

So it’s time to take a moment — be it a phone call, card or cookout to let your father know how much he means to you — no matter if he lives across the country, on the other side of town or in a neighboring city.

It’s a time to give thanks.

So, thanks, to all the dads who have been great teachers in our lives.

Thanks for giving us advice when we didn’t know where to turn.

Thanks for leading by example. For encouragement. For teaching games. For your charity.

For being a part of your children’s lives. For giving us an education. For letting us experience life. For the hugs. For the challenges.

For the lessons. For the compassion. For shelter. For nurture. For your time.

Thanks, dads, for everything you have meant to us.
Happy Father’s Day.