This year, Hallmark expects 93 million cards to be sent to honor the hard work and dedication of fathers throughout the land on June 20. That should ensure their annual bonuses can buy more than a Thank You for being a Responsible Corporate Executive Day card.

But a careful reading of flawless source material (Wikipedia) and interviewing of experts in the field (including my husband) finds that the event wasn’t made up by Hallmark after all. Instead, blame the Episcopalians.

Grace Golden Clayton of Fairmont, W.Va., first thought of the idea of a Father’s Day celebration in 1908. Inspired by a mine explosion the year prior, where hundreds of children lost their fathers, she suggested the idea to her priest at the Williams Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

Although the church held such a service on July 5 of that year, it was overshadowed by a well-attended parade the day before, followed by the death of a much-beloved member of their community.

Two years later, Sonora Smart Dodd of Spokane, Wash., thought of the idea as well. A member of Central Methodist Episcopal Church at Spokane, she was inspired to hold a Father’s Day celebration while listening to a Mother’s Day sermon at church. Her father had raised Sonora and her five siblings after their mother died, and she felt a day to celebrate the hard-working dads in the community would be in order as well.

Despite growing support from churches throughout the country, and the formation of a National Council for the Promotion of Father’s Day (a.k.a. the golf clubs, chef aprons and barbecue tools retailers of America), the holiday wasn’t official until President Richard Nixon made the day a national holiday in 1972. Today, Father’s Day is celebrated throughout the world, in countries including Tonga, Germany and Zimbabwe. To be a father is to be a teacher, a coach, a cheerleader, a protector, a professional hugger, a barbecue master and countless other roles. Dads are the ultimate Renaissance men.

In honor of Father’s Day, we talked to a few Clayton dads about what it takes to be a father and how the role has affected and taught them. Whether a new grandpa or a hard-working father of teens, they all had one thing in common the enthusiasm and joy they expressed for the one of a kind experience of being a father.

Michael Basil

Mike is the director of high school and media at Clayton Community Church. He and wife Juliana have a 2½-year-old daughter named Eliana. “The biggest thing for me is that I didn’t realize how selfish I was until I had a kid. Even with your marriage, there’s that self interest you still have and you still hold onto. Once you have a kid, there’s this reality that it’s their needs first and not my needs first. That was the biggest life-changing event. It’s a lot of fun, though. You realize what it is to really love and what it is to really give. You don’t have time to hold things back. You don’t have time to think twice about things.”

Sean Kuipers

Known as “Hot Sean” to friends and neighbors, he was 19 when he had son Nicholas, now 16. Sean shares custody of Nicholas and sister Morgan, 13, who live in Sonora with their mother. He is also the step-dad to wife Christa’s two daughters, Abby, 8, and Katelyn, 14. “There’s someone that relies on you 100 percent. It’s good and bad at the same time. It doesn’t matter if you’re tired or sick or hungry or whatever, you have to take care of that person. I love teaching them things. … I don’t want them to have to rely on some guy later in life. Be patient and enjoy it, because they grow up quickly.”

Jay Hartlove

Jay went from thinking that he would never have children to having his firstborn at age 43. Now 52, he is the father of two daughters, 9-year-old Katie and 5-year-old Abby. “I never thought of myself as ‘the dad,’ but now that I am a dad, I do feel like ‘the dad’ and I feel like that first before anything else. The cliché ‘You don’t know what love is until you’ve had a child’ is really true. It’s surprising, invigorating and magical. I love and care about them more than I ever imagined I could. When I see them being kind and loving to each other, I feel like I didn’t just bring two new bodies into the world but two loving and caring people. When you have children, you get the chance to teach the big, wide world to a brand-new person, a fresh and innocent perspective. It’s a refreshing, exciting, eye-opening and reinvigorating experience that made me feel young all over again. I’d strongly recommend it.”

Tom Tovrea

Tom is the busy father of two teens, daughter Taylor, 16, and son Brent, 13. He can often be found chauffeuring them to activities in true soccer dad fashion. “Raising teenagers takes patience – patience and the ability to remember what it was like to be that age. Sometimes it’s difficult, even with all my experience with dealing with young adults as a middle school teacher. My expectations are higher because they are my own flesh and blood. But despite this, the teenage years are what I’ve been looking forward to. Every day is fun and challenging. These are the payoff years when, after laying the foundation during their childhood, I can sit back and enjoy watching my kids succeed and have fun. A lot of people dread the teenage years, but they’re what I’ve looked forward to the entire time. And now that they’re here, I’m cherishing every minute.”

Andrew Rosen

An involved father of three – Jared, 19, Sarah, 16, and Joshua, 13. Andy also was legal guardian to Maggie, 16, who was adopted into the family in 2007. “I have always wanted to have kids; I always seemed to relate well to children, even as a teenager. However, no one told me that those cute little darlings would turn into teenagers! The fact that I was adopted myself made adopting Maggie into our family seem like a natural thing to do. It was something we had the wherewithal to do and it would have been wrong not to extend a lifeline to someone who might very well have drifted the wrong way otherwise. Learning about her life and family has made me more appreciative of my own.”

Peter Champion

The rector of St. John’s Episcopal Parish recently became a grandfather for the second time. “I sitting and watching our daughter and son-in-law with their newborn. It was pretty powerfully moving to watch them with their son, just totally enraptured with him. It brought back memories of how we felt when our kiddos were new, but it also gave me kind of a pretty profound sense that things have come full circle. It was kind of a reminder to me that the time and the energy we’d spent raising our kids was now being passed forward.”

Jonathan Hackett

A dad of two boys, Tyler, 11 and Lance, 8, Hackett is heavily involved with his sons' sports, including coaching their football and soccer teams.

“It's the best experience one could ever have, to be a father. I didn't grow up with a father. And my kids have never not had a father. It's taught me to grow up and realize what's important in life – your children and your family. Don't look too far outside the bubble – this is who you're going to be with forever. You're raising your best friends.”

We at the Clayton Pioneer would like to join in thanking our fathers. Thanks, dads – we really appreciate you and all the hard work you do on behalf of your children and those in the community around you.

And hey, can we have our hamburgers medium-rare, with cheese?

Staff writers Denison Hartlove, Bev Britton and Taylor Tovrea contributed to this story.