WASHINGTON, June 19 (Xinhua) -- Two days ahead of Father's Day, U.S. President Barack Obama used an entire afternoon on Friday to promote the importance of fatherhood, urging fathers to fulfill their responsibilities.

U.S. President Barack Obama tells a story about talking on the phone to his daughters while campaigning for president, during an event discussing fatherhood and mentoring in the East Room at the White House in Washington D.C., capital of the United States, June 19, 2009. (Xinhua/Zhang Yan) Photo Gallery>>>

    "Fatherhood also brings great responsibilities. Fathers have an obligation to help rear the children they bring into the world. Children deserve this care, and families need each father's active participation," he said in a presidential proclamation issued by the White House.

    First on the president's agenda Friday afternoon is a visit to a local nonprofit organization, Year Up, that helps young adults prepare for a professional career.

U.S. President Barack Obama brushes oil on corns as he hosts a barbeque for local students on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, capital of the Untied States, June 19, 2009, ahead of the Father's Day, which falls on June 21 this year. (Xinhua/Zhang Yan) Photo Gallery>>>

    Meanwhile, his staff members moved across the city and partnered with athletes and other celebrities to reach out to young boys through various local organizations.

    Dwyane Wade of the NBA's Miami Heat, Antwan Randel El of the NFL's Washington Redskins, pro skateboarder Tony Hawk and Tony Award winning actor B.D. Wong are just a few of the celebrities who are taking part in events around Washington to promote the president's message of responsibility.

    Later afternoon, Obama will hold a town hall-style event in the White House, where he will lead a discussion about fatherhood and take questions from an audience of local fathers and young men.

    The president and his guests will attend a barbecue on the White House South Lawn with celebrity chef Bobby Flay firing up the grill.

U.S. President Barack Obama listens to a question by a seven-year-old boy during a town hall event discussing fatherhood and mentoring in the East Room of the White House in Washington D.C., capital of the United States, June 19, 2009. (Xinhua/Zhang Yan) Photo Gallery>>>

    Obama also wrote an op-ed that will run in this Sunday's Parade Magazine, in which he acknowledges how growing up without his father affected him.

    "I knew him mainly from the letters he wrote and the stories my family told," the president writes.

    "And while I was lucky to have two wonderful grandparents who poured everything they had into helping my mother raise my sister and me, I still felt the weight of his absence throughout my childhood."

    In his autobiography, "Dreams From My Father," Obama wrote about the questions he had for his father but couldn't ask him because he had such a limited presence in his life.

    He described his struggle to understand his identity as a young African-American man growing up with a single mom and his white grandparents.

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