LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Fathers Day in Los Angeles County will include the opportunity to attend a car show on Beverly Hills' famed Rodeo Drive and play catch on the field at Dodger Stadium.
The 26th annual Rodeo Drive Concours d'Elegance will be held from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. on the 200 through 400 blocks of North Rodeo Drive. The show will celebrate 100 years of the British marque Bentley. Admission is free.
Fans will be able to play catch on the field following the Los Angeles Dodgers-Chicago Cubs game at Dodger Stadium which will begin at 4:15 p.m.
Los Angeles County's other professional baseball team, the Lancaster JetHawks of the Class A California League, will give fathers a similar opportunity before their game against the Inland Empire 66ers of San Bernardino. Gates at the Hangar will open at 1 p.m. for the 2:05 p.m. game.
A Community Father's Day Remembrance Service will begin at 10 a.m. at Hillside Memorial Park and Mortuary on the Los Angeles-Culver City border. 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 17th 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, two students pursuing a degree in nursing -- Ephriam's late mother was a nurse -- and adults ages 25 to 40 who delayed their college educations for personal or financial reasons.
A Father's Day gathering to celebrate fathers and end jail expansion in Los Angeles County will be held from 8 a.m.-noon outside the Men's Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles.
In his Father's Day proclamation, President Donald Trump wrote, “On Father's Day, we celebrate and honor the men who have embraced the essential role of fatherhood. Through acts of selflessness, determination, and love, fathers and father figures enrich and bless all of our lives.
“As children, we take comfort in the presence and companionship of fathers, and we are strengthened by their encouragement as we prepare to confront future challenges. Throughout life, we draw courage from our father's firm and loving guidance and example.
“With the values they instill in us, they encourage us to live a life of virtue and exercise good judgment as we enter into adulthood and have families of our own.”
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.