2017 Father's Day Events In And Around Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES, CA — Events marking Father's Day in Los Angeles County on Sunday will include a celebration at the California African American Museum, a remembrance service at a Culver City cemetery and a brunch in Long Beach honoring unsung fathers.

The celebration at the museum in Exposition Park will run from 11 a.m.-5 p.m. and include live music, a mobile video game lounge and toy- and kite- making workshops.

A Community Father's Day Remembrance Service will begin at 10 a.m. at Hillside Memorial Park and Mortuary. The service commemorates the bond between fathers and their children that has been a cornerstone of Jewish tradition from the time of Abraham, the first of the three patriarchs of the religion.

Those attending are asked to contribute canned and dry foods, eyeglasses and hearing aids to the Hillside Chesed Project, an effort to help others associated with the spirit of tzedakah, the Hebrew word commonly used to signify charity but more accurately meaning a religious obligation to do what is right and just.

The Mablean Ephriam Foundation will conduct its 15th annual Honoring Unsung Fathers Awards and Scholarship Brunch at the Hilton Long Beach.

The awards are intended to celebrate fathers and make Father's Day as special as Mother's Day and encourage and promote positive fatherhood by spotlighting fathers who accept their role and responsibility and do it well.

The awards honor fathers in five categories:

• "Solo Warrior," the father who never married the child's mother and is the primary custodial parent;
• "Love Cares," the married father living in the home;
• "Fatherhood Forever," billed as "the divorced father who divorced the mother, not the children";
• "The Village Dad," the non-biological father who stepped into the shoes of the father; and
• "The Living Legacy," an elderly father who serves as the role model for other fathers.

Ephriam said the awards were inspired by her 1999-2006 stint on the syndicated courtroom series "Divorce Court," hearing actual cases involving feuding parents. The winners are nominated by their children, wives, former wives, parents, siblings, other relatives, friends, co-workers and others who know and admire their great qualities. Nominees are primarily from Los Angeles County.

College scholarships will also be presented to students who graduated from high school this year and adults ages 25 to 40 who delayed their college educations for personal or financial reasons.

Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer Sr., former NFL linebacker Joe Kelly and Emmy-winning actor Glenn Turman will also be honored.

Jones-Sawyer, D-Los Angeles, will receive the Founders Award. He is the chair of the Assembly's Select Committee on the Status of Boys and Men of Color and has written laws, helped implement programs and formed alliances to help the group.

Kelly will receive the Board of Directors Award. He is the owner of the Ohio-based K.E.L.L.Y. Youth Services, which specializes in group home and independent living programs.

Turman will receive a special award. He and his wife Jo-An are co- founders of a nonprofit foundation and operate a free western-style camp program, Camp Gid D Up, for inner-city and at-risk youth.

The 24th annual Father's Day Car Show on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills will be held from 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

Pasadena's 16th annual Classic Car Show will be held on Green Street between Marengo Avenue and Euclid Avenue beginning at 10 a.m.

In his Father's Day proclamation, President Donald Trump wrote "Father's Day is a special occasion that reminds us to pause and thank the men in our lives who have taken on the responsibility of raising children. As sons and daughters, we recognize the love they have given and the sacrifices they have made, and we celebrate the indispensable role fathers play in our lives and communities.

"Fathers have the ability and responsibility to instill in us core values we carry into adulthood. The examples they set and the lessons they impart about hard work, dedication to family, faith in God, and believing in ourselves establish the moral foundation for success that allows us to live up to our full potential."

Father's Day began when Sonora Smart Dodd wanted to honor her father, William Jackson Smart, a single parent who raised six children in Spokane, Washington. She initially suggested June 5, the anniversary of his death. However, when that date would not provide organizers with enough time to make arrangements, the first Father's Day was celebrated in 1910 in Spokane on the third Sunday in June.

In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge recommended Father's Day be a national holiday. In 1966, President Lyndon Johnson proclaimed Father's Day as a holiday to be celebrated on the third Sunday in June, while President Richard Nixon signed a bill into law to do so in 1972.

— By STEVEN HERBERT, City News Service. Photo via Pixabay