Fathers honored in Albany this weekend

ALBANY — Families across the nation will come together this weekend to honor their paternal progenitor. Beginning as a daughter’s simple idea to celebrate her loving father more than a century ago, Father’s Day has become a permanent nationally observed day and a billion-dollar industry.

The idea of Father’s Day as it is celebrated today is credited to a young woman who lived in Spokane, Wash. According to historians, Sonora Smart Dodd, one of six children raised by a widower, tried to establish a day of recognition for male parents in 1909. Dodd, apparently, called on churches, the YMCA, local shopkeepers and even government officials to raise support for her idea. And she was successful.

On July 19, 1910, Washington state celebrated the nation’s first statewide Father’s Day. Afterward, as word of the celebration emerged, the holiday began to slowly spread. A bill recommending national recognition of the holiday was introduced to Congress in 1913 but failed to pass. President Woodrow Wilson, in 1916, honored the day by using a telegraph signal to unfurl a flag in Spokane when he push a button in Washington, D.C.

In 1924, state governments were urged by President Calvin Coolidge to observe Father’s Day to establish more intimate relationships between fathers and their children and to impress upon fathers the full measure of their obligations.

During the 1920s and 1930s, just as the holiday was beginning to get some traction, a movement arose to scrap both Mother’s Day and Father’s Day in favor of a single Parents’ Day. The Great Depression derailed these efforts, as struggling retailers and advertisers doubled their efforts to make Father’s Day a “second Christmas” for men, promoting items such as neckties, hats, sporting goods, pipes, socks, tobacco and greeting cards.

During World War II, advertisers argued that celebrating Father’s Day was a way to honor American troops and support the war effort. By the end of the war, the pseudo-holiday was a national institution.

After four decades of protracted struggle, president Lyndon Johnson, in 1966, signed a presidential proclamation declaring the third Sunday of June as Father’s Day. Then, in 1972, in the middle of a hard-fought re-election campaign, President Richard Nixon established a permanent national observance of the holiday.

Sonora Smart Dodd, for her contribution, was honored at the 1974 World’s Fair in Spokane. She died in 1978 at the age of 96.

Today, economists estimate that Americans spend more than $1 billion each year on Father’s Day gifts.

For those looking for Father’s Day activities in the Albany area, the Flint RiverQuarium is offering free admission for dads with a child’s paid admission Sunday from 1-5 p.m.

Chehaw Park is having Father’s Day Brunch Sunday from 10:30 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. Fathers and their offspring can enjoy brunch at the park for $25 per adult non-member/$20 per adult member, $15 per child non-member/$12 per child member and all tickets include admission to the park.

Also, Phoebe Healthworks, located at 311 Third Ave., is hosting its annual Men’s Health Conference Saturday from 8 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. The conference includes a continental breakfast, health screenings, exercise demonstrations, door prizes and several keynote speakers.

Celebrity Chef Jerome Brown will be one of the speakers at the health conference, and he will headline an Auctions & Avocados fundraiser at the Albany Civic Center starting at 7 p.m. Saturday night. That event is sponsored by the Women of Grace Foundation as part of their Men’s Health Week.