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Resources & Links > Archived Articles > Family and Life > Celebrate Dad Family and LIfe 
About Father's DayNow it's the old man's turn! This is where we Celebrate Dad all year long. It consists of four pages:
Father's Day: How it All Beganby Rich Rodriguez Skip Heitzig, senior pastor of New Mexico's Calvary of Albuquerque church, said that when God's about to do something good, He will call a man, but when He's planning something really great, He will use a woman. So with all the emphasis on Father's Day with ties, sports, barbeques and all that wonderfully tradional he-man stuff, it may surprise you that the person responsible for creating this holiday a century ago was a woman. In Spokane, Washington back in 1909, a year after the first Mother's Day in Grafton, West Virginia, Sonora Louise Smart Dodd heard a sermon at her church about the merits of Mother's Day, and of setting aside a day to honor one's mother. She got the idea for doing the same thing for fathers as well, and especially for her own father, William Jackson Smart, who raised her and her five siblings by himself after her mother died in childbirth in 1898. On June 19, 1910, with the support of the Spokane Ministerial Association and the local YWCA, the first Father's Day was celebrated in the city of Spokane. The original date was actually the 5th, Dodd's father's birthday, but it was pushed back to the 15th because there wasn't enough time to prepare. The momentum for Father's Day caught on across the United States and Canada, with many resolutions over the years in our country to make it a national holiday. However, it wasn't until 1972 when Congress officially recognized it and President Richard Nixon signed a proclamation declaring the third Sunday of every June as Father's Day. Mrs. Dodd never knew her mother, but she loved her father very much, as evidenced with her drive to give fathers their due with a national day of their own. And because of that love, today fathers around the world are recognized for their efforts and dedication to their families. ©2009 Immanuel First Lutheran Church |
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