--- title: Father's Day: 5 Hero Dads Worth Celebrating description: These dads have saved their children from fires, kidnappers and other dangers canonical: https://time.com/3919243/fathers-day-hero-dads/ author: Sarah Begley article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-19T18:59:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:06:38.455Z og:title: 5 Hero Dads Worth Celebrating This Father's Day og:description: These dads have saved their children from fires, kidnappers and other dangers og:url: https://time.com/3919243/fathers-day-hero-dads/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 5 Hero Dads Worth Celebrating This Father's Day twitter:description: These dads have saved their children from fires, kidnappers and other dangers twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # 5 Hero Dads Worth Celebrating This Father's Day > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ## Video: Father's Day Spending By the Numbers [Watch (HLS stream): Father's Day Spending By the Numbers](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/LbEHSkUl.m3u8) (1:35)  _Published 2015-06-17. MONEY VIDEO_ by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Jun 19, 2015 6:59 PM UTC by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Jun 19, 2015 6:59 PM UTC All dads deserve a big hug on Father’s Day, but some have really gone above and beyond the call of duty in the past year. From the dad who rescued his young daughter from a burning building to the dad who donated part of his liver to save his son’s life, these fathers deserve a big round of applause for heroic deeds that protected their children. ### The dad who gave his son a liver transplant Brittany Munn, who lives in upstate New York, [knew her son was sick from the time he was born](http://www.wbng.com/news/local/Local-fathers-liver-donation-saves-infant-sons-life-306316541.html), but doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong at first. They eventually discovered Caleb had the rare and serious [biliary atresia](http://www.liverfoundation.org/abouttheliver/info/biliaryatresia/), and said he needed a liver transplant if he was to survive past the age of 2. Luckily, his father was a perfect match. As soon as Brian Munn found out he could donate part of his liver to make his son healthy, he jumped at the opportunity. Father and son now have matching scars from their March 2015 surgeries, and Caleb will continue to require treatment. But for now, he is much healthier, and his dad is glad he could do what was needed to help. “Once I \[knew\] that he was OK, and he was on the other side of the surgery,” Brian Munn told WBNG Binghamton, “I knew that it was all worth it.” ### The dad who saved his daughter from a kidnapper Aaron Edson could have been named negotiator of the year for saving his daughter from an apparent kidnapper. Edson and his wife Stephanie [awoke in the middle of the night](http://abcnews.go.com/US/utah-parents-aaron-sheila-edson-saved-daughter-kidnappers/story?id=26805718) in their home near Salt Lake City in November 2014 to discover their 5-year-old daughter missing from her bed. Edson, panicked, soon found her outside in the arms of a stranger who had broken into the house. When he asked the man what he was doing with the little girl, the burglar replied that he was in danger and wouldn’t be harmed if he had a child with him. “I said, ‘Really, I want to help you but she has got to stay,’” Edson told _Good Morning America_. “I just walked up to him and held out my arm and he just handed her over peacefully and calmly, and no one’s voice ever got raised.” In the end, all was well for little Lainey, and the would-be kidnapper was arrested. [ABC US News](http://abcnews.go.com/us) | [World News](http://abcnews.go.com/international) ### The dad whose first aid training saved his own son When Ray Adams got CPR training, he didn’t expect to have to use it the same day—and [on his own son](http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-youth-football-rescue-20141010-story.html). Shortly after receiving the CPR training, the youth football coach was watching his 11-year-old son RayShawn play in a scrimmage in Hartford, Conn. in August 2014, when RayShawn was knocked over and seemed to be struggling to breathe. Adams started performing chest compressions and blowing into his son’s mouth, until RayShawn gasped in air and began breathing again. Adams now says he hopes all coaches get the same training to be able to step in when tragedy strikes. ### The dad who saved his baby from a burning building Throwing your baby out the window may not sound like a heroic act, but in the case of Liam Crocket, it was exactly that. When his home in East Kilbride, Scotland caught fire in November 2014, Crocket acted fast. “The floor began to cave in so I grabbed Lilly, put a blanket over her and held her tight to my chest,” he told the [_Daily Record_](http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/hero-dad-saves-daughter-inferno-4617790). “I knew we had to go out the window. Luckily, there were people outside so I flung Lilly down into someone’s arms. Once she was safe, I jumped.” Mother Sarah MacKenzie was away from the house when the fire broke out, and was very grateful for Crocket’s heroic rescue of their 1-year-old. “It was his quick thinking that saved our baby’s life,” she told the _Daily Record_. ### The dad who fought a bear to save his son Greg Alexander awoke while camping in Great Smoky Mountains National Park in early June to the sound of his teenage son’s screams. A bear had attacked the 16-year-old, Gabriel, in his sleep, and Alexander saw the bear “dragging him across the ground by his head,” [according to the ](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/local/2015/06/08/smokies-rangers-plan-euthanize-bear-attacked-boy/28691927/)[_Citizen-Times_](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/local/2015/06/08/smokies-rangers-plan-euthanize-bear-attacked-boy/28691927/)_._ Worried that he might already be too late to save his son, Alexander jumped on the bear’s back, hit it in the face and threw rocks at it until it finally let go and went away. The two had to hike several miles to safety, and though Gabriel’s scalp and facial injuries were serious, he is expected to make a full recovery—all thanks to his dad’s bravery in the face of a beast. ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] Kids, you need to step it up. Research shows most people splurge more for mom on Mother's Day than they do for Dad on Father's Day. According to surveys conducted by the National Retail Federation, Americans were expected to spend a total of 21. 2 billion dollars on Mother's Day this year, and only 12. 7 billion on Father's Day. This isn't a new dynamic. Research shows it's the same every year. Some speculate it's due to mothers being the ones who manage most traditional households. It could also be a matter of timing. In May, schedules are clearing up because school is getting out. And the season is changing making it the perfect time to buy mom some potted plants for the garden. Compare that to late June which tends to be a busier and costlier time thanks to wedding season. And family vacations. For father's day this year the average person plans to spend $ 115. 57 which is pretty stagnant compared to last year's $ 113. 80 and it turns out some cliches are still going strong. Four in ten fathers are getting a tie or some other piece of clothing this year. With another four in ten getting tickets to a sporting event or treated to a meal. Most shoppers, about 36 %, are expected to stick to the traditional department stores for their shopping. And 29 % will go online. Online shoppers are actually expected to spend quite a bit more, with an average of $ 157. But what dads actually want this year is to treat themselves. A survey from RetailMeNot says 37 % of fathers are hoping for gift cards this year, which works out for everyone. 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