Local Residents Recognized as Fathers of the Year

RIVERSIDE >> Each year, the American Diabetes Association (ADA) recognizes several upstanding fathers in their community with the Father of the Year Award. The purpose of this award is to recognize men who have made family a priority, all the while balancing demanding careers and community involvement. After identifying the qualified nominees who meet all the criteria for the award, the Father’s Day Council chooses who will then become the privileged honorees. In acknowledging these men as leaders of the community, the council hopes to further awareness of the importance of fatherhood, all the while benefiting the American Diabetes Association. Throughout the nation, more than $35 million has been raised to date from Father of the Year events, which will help the ADA fund essential research, education, and advocacy. In the past 15 years, hundreds of deserving men have been given the honor of Father of the Year, all recognized by their peers and families as role models. The Father of the Year awards in the Inland Empire took place in the Riverside Convention Center. While attendees enjoyed a three-course dinner, videos recorded by the four honorees—Jim Steiner, Leonard Lee Bailey, Michael A. Goldware, and Vincent K. Ragsdale—were shown, followed by guest speaker Ryan Mahoney. Ryan Mahoney is a 17-year-old teenager who has been living with Type 1 Diabetes since he was diagnosed at age 2. He shared his experiences, specifically the challenges, about having to live with this metabolic disease. Even when he was too young to pronounce “diabetes,” instead calling it the “Ditty Bittys," his parents needed to prick his arm/finger as many as eight times in one day because he could not express to his family when he was feeling lightheaded. “The hardest part about this is disease is that I never get a break from it,” Mahoney said. Diabetes can be both physically and mentally draining, but thanks to the ADA camp, Mahoney said he finally feels like he belongs, no longer the odd one out because he needed to prick his finger every several hours since “all the kids were doing it.” The first honoree recognized was Jim Steiner, a captain for the Corona Fire Department. Steiner has been a firefighter for almost 30 years and is also the president of the Corona Firefighters Association. With a wife, Beth, and three children, Steiner expertly balances his time between the Fire Department, the community supporting children with cancer, and his home life. “[My children] understand the meaning of working hard and setting goals…[I’m] super proud,” Steiner said. When provided a chance for leisure, Steiner enjoys playing the guitar and singing the wrong lyrics to songs. He also enjoys creating woodwork furniture, even building a wooden shelf for his daughter’s apartment simply because she asked him to. The next honoree was Leonard Bailey, surgeon-in-chief at Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital. In November of 1985, Bailey performed the first human-to-human heart transplant in a newborn baby, and since then, Loma Linda University has been a world leading pediatric heart transplant center. Internationally recognized, Bailey has given numerous lectures across the globe on congenital heart surgery and infant heart transplantation. He has a wife, Nancy, and together two adopted sons, only nine weeks apart in age. “We call them judicial twins,” Nancy said. His son, Connor, shared encouragements from his father. “Do whatever you want to do...whatever you’re passionate about…he never tried to impose on us that you have to achieve this, that you have to at least get this far...he’s a great father in that respect," Connor said. Michael A. Goldware was the next honoree. An attorney who has been an active resident of Riverside since 1958, Goldware has represented more than 700 clients all around Southern California and has been admitted into the United Supreme Court Bar. He and his wife of 41 years, Donna, have a daughter named Rebecca and a new granddaughter named Ellie. Goldware shared how his father suffered from Type 1 Diabetes in his later years, but this type of diabetes only accounts for 5 percent of the diabetic population. He said 95% of the diabetes—Type 2—"can be prevented with diet and exercise.” Goldware left the audience with a saying his father always said to him. “There’s always enough time to make a friend," he said. "There’s always enough time to learn something new. There’s always enough time to help someone else...this isn't simply where you live. This is your home. You have an obligation to make today better than yesterday, and tomorrow better still.” The fourth Father of the Year honoree was Vincent Ragsdale, who graduated from Loma Linda University with a Registered Nursing degree and worked as an emergency room nurse until he went back to school for a Doctor of Optometry degree in 1992. One of his daughters shared how her father always said, “Everyone goes through hard moments in life. It's how you go deal with them, how you come out of them.” She said one of the biggest things Vincent has taught her is “just how to go through those [hard moments] and look to God and and handle everything with grace.” All in all, this celebratory event raised $18,000 in one night for the ADA between the entry tickets, donations, and auctions, all the while recognizing four fathers for their service to their careers, communities, and families.