Give A Shout-Out To A Great Dad, Past Or Present, In Hartford Or Tolland County

Father's Day is just around the corner, on Sunday, June 15, and Patch asks its readers to share the important dads (and father figures) in their lives.

In the United States, Father's Day was founded in 1910 in Washington state, and is celebrated on the third Sunday of June. Typically, families gather to celebrate the father figures in their lives.

Patch editors in Hartford and Tolland counties want to honor the great dads in the region by asking readers to send us a non-copyrighted photo of the dad in their lives (past or present), as well as a short note explaining what makes or made him so special, as well as their (or your) hometown). Email them to tim.jensen@patch.com by noon Friday to be considered for publication.

Due to copyright laws, we cannot publish photos taken from other media sources or done by professional photographers. In today's day and age, with everyone snapping photos all day long with their phones - that is what we can use. The name of the person who actually took the photo must be included.

I'll start it off by telling you just one thing about my dad. Wayne Jensen was the greatest person I've ever known, my idol, my role model. I've often said if I can be half the man he was, I'd be doing pretty well for myself. When he passed away in 2010, I delivered the eulogy at his funeral, and concluded with (and I'm paraphrasing here): "My siblings and I were very lucky, because while everyone has a father, we had a dad."