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Community Corner

American Diabetes Association in Riverside to honor four with 2013 Father of the Year awards

The American Diabetes Association (ADA) serving Riverside and San Bernardino counties will honor four fathers with 2013 Father of the Year awards at a dinner starting at 6 p.m. on Thursday, May 30, at the Riverside Auditorium & Events Center, 3485 Mission Inn Ave., Riverside. More than 300 people are expected to attend. Tickets begin at $150 per person. Tickets are available at the door. For more information and to RSVP, visit www.diabetes.org/FOTYRiverside. The four award recipients include include: Gordon Bourns, chairman/CEO, Bourns, Inc.; Bob Hemborg, president and founder, Hemborg Ford; James A. Robinson, CEO, Security Bank of California; Mike Vasquez, founder, Miguel’s Restaurants. The ADA said the four were selected based on their commitment to the community and to their families. “We are proud to honor men who have achieved a high-level of success in their careers while finding the time to be exemplary fathers,” said Elizabeth Jinks, American Diabetes Association associate director. “These men deserve recognition not only as fathers and community leaders, but for the thousands of dollars they will help raise to stop diabetes.” Bourns heads a global manufacturer and supplier of electronic components, including the Trimpot® trimming potentiometer, automotive sensors, circuit protection solutions, magnetic products, precision potentiometers, panel controls, encoders, fixed resistors and microelectronic modules. The Riverside-based company serves a broad range of markets, including the automotive, telecommunications, industrial, consumer and pro-audio market segments. Founded in 1947, the company today employs more than 4,000 who work at 12 domestic and international facilities. Bourns and wife Jill have been married for 34 years and have four daughters, one son and one grandchild. Hemborg, a Lake Mathews resident, has been in the car business since graduating from Riverside’s Poly High School in 1954. Hemborg Ford was founded 30 years ago, in March 1983, when Hemborg and his two partners acquired a Ford dealership. The dealership, located at 1900 Hamner Ave. in Norco, primarily serves the Corona, Norce and Greater Inland Empire areas. Hemborg and wife Linda have been married for 55 years and have two children, four grandchildren and one great grandson. Robinson, a Riverside resident, is one of the founders of Security Bank of California and a leading banker in the Inland Empire for 50 years. He began his banking career in 1961 in San Bernardino. In 2005 he led a group of investors to establish Security Bank of California as a community business bank. The bank has grown to 65 employees at five locations in Riverside, San Bernardino, Redlands, Orange, and Irwindale. Robinson and wife Barbara were married in 1986 and have two children and three grandchildren, all living in Riverside. Vasquez, a Corona resident, worked as a carpenter before he and wife Mary opened their first Miguel’s Restaurant in July 1973 in Corona. Vasquez did not plan to enter the restaurant business. He had given a personal loan to a family friend who operated a restaurant, but the friend was not able to repay the loan and gave the restaurant as payment. Vasquez renamed the restaurant Miguel’s in honor of his grandfather. The family currently operates three full-service restaurants called Miguel’s California Mexican Cocina & Cantina, two in Corona and one in Foothill Ranch, and 11 fast-food outlets called Miguel’s Jr. in the Inland Empire and Orange County. Vasquez and wife Mary were married in 1964 and raised four children in Corona, two sons and two daughters, all who attended local schools, earned college degrees and then returned home to work in the family business. The Father of the Year Awards program, presented by the Father’s Day Council and benefiting the American Diabetes Association, honors fathers in the U.S. who have demonstrated the ability to balance their personal lives, serve as role models of strength, commitment and love for their children and help make positive contributions to their communities. The New York-based Father’s Day Council, which began the awards in 1942, designated the ADA as its charity partner in 1999. The Riverside ADA chapter began its Father of the Year awards in 2010. Sponsors of the American Diabetes Association event include the Press-Enterprise newspaper, Gless Ranch and Mission Inn Hotel & Spa.

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