In honor of Father’s Day, we’re sharing a guest post from Five Moms’ ally Lieutenant Joseph Schillaci’s son. Perry Rosen Schillaci, age 35, shares why his father is so special and how his dad has impacted his life.

I would like to take a few moments to explain what my father means to me and the type of person he has raised me to become. My father is a very funny, caring, emotional and a loving human being. He has taught me good values, which I use every day. Sometimes I see my father in myself, whether it’s his crazy, wild and loveable personality or his care and respect for human life.

First of all, it wasn’t an easy task to raise me as I grew up into an adolescent. My father always taught me right from wrong, but at times I didn’t follow the righteous path that a father teaches their child. I remember “everything” (and I mean “everything”) when growing up. One night when I was with my father, he pulled over to the side of the road to help an older gentleman who had a flat tire. We helped the gentleman change his tire and as we were leaving he grabbed a 20-dollar bill, and preceded to hand it to me. I was maybe around 10 or 11 years of age at the time and I reached out my hand to accept the money. I remember my dad’s exact words. He looked at the older man and my dad said, “No sir, I’d like to teach my son a lesson.” My father then looked at that man and said, “Whenever you see someone on the side of the road, pull over and help them!” This is just one of the traits my father has as a loving person and it took me awhile to understand what he had said to the gentleman and what it meant . Through the years, we have grown a lot closer. In the beginning stages of my life, I always looked at the glass as half empty, but now I have a stronger understanding of  the values he has passed on to me! When it comes to my father’s efforts to help children, he is a great role model, he goes on tour doing anti-bullying presentations in which he gets teens to come up to him and participate in his presentation. He has also helped the Five Moms in talking to kids about over-the-counter cough medicine abuse!

In conclusion, my father is a great role model.  My father has also taught me that in addition to good values, it’s important to clean up the house every day. No one is perfect, but that’s his downfall. He is obsessed with maintaining a clean house. It is funny how you can never judge a book by its cover because now I’m obsessed with the same thing!