Community Corner
Fun Facts About Father's Day
Last year there were 154,000 stay-at-home dads in the nation.
- The idea of Father's Day was conceived slightly more than a century ago by Sonora Dodd of Spokane, Wash., while she listened to a Mother's Day sermon in 1909. Dodd wanted a special day to honor her father, William Smart, a widowed Civil War veteran who was left to raise his six children on a farm. A day in June was chosen for the first Father's Day celebration – 101 years ago, June 19, 1910, proclaimed by Spokane's mayor because it was the month of Smart's birth.
- The first presidential proclamation honoring fathers was issued in 1966 when President Lyndon Johnson designated the third Sunday in June as Father's Day.
- Father's Day has been celebrated annually since 1972 when President Richard Nixon signed the public law that made it permanent.
- There is an estimated 70.1 million fathers across the nation. (Source: Unpublished data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation)
- The number of single in the nation in 2010 was 1.8 million; 15 percent of single parents were men. (Source: America's Families and Living Arrangements)The estimated number of stay-at-home dads in 2010 was 154,000. These married fathers with children younger than 15 have remained out of the labor force for at least one year primarily so they can care for the family while their wives work outside the home. These fathers cared for 287,000 children. (Source: America's Families and Living Arrangements)
- The number of Americans who participated in a barbecue in the last year was 81.5 million — it's probably safe to assume many of these barbecues took place on Father's Day. (Source: Mediamark Research & Intelligence, as cited in the Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2011)
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