FRESNO -- Five residents of the Central Valley, including a Hanford resident have been recognized for their contributions to the community and will receive the Local Hero of the Year Award, an awards program in its eighth year honoring outstanding members of the Latino community in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month.

The recipients will be formally recognized at an awards reception Wednesday at the Valley Public Television (KVPT) broadcast center in downtown Fresno. Union Bank of California, N.A., sponsors the program in conjunction with KVPT, which will broadcast profiles of the honorees during Hispanic Heritage Month, Sept. 15 to Oct. 15.

The honorees are:

Ramon "Ray" Vasquez manages and operates B.E.C.O Dairy Automation Inc. in Hanford. With more than 25 years of plant operations experience, Vasquez is well known as the person business owners call upon when their companies begin to show signs of weakness and vulnerability. He assesses the damage and recommends changes to run the business more efficiently, often times turning around the struggling company.

Vasquez volunteers his business "know-how" to serve on boards and helps many non-profits and organizations to benefit his community. He was also instrumental in the development of the Kings/Tulare Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

Maria Alvarez-Garcia of Fresno was a traditional wife, mother and grandmother until she experienced a personal tragedy that changed her life. In 2004, her grandson, Adam Carbajal, became the victim of Shaken Baby Syndrome and as a result sustained permanent, disabling injuries.

Since then Maria has become a passionate and vocal advocate for the victims of child abuse, and after making countless phone calls, writing hundreds of letters, and knocking on the doors of attorneys, politicians, child abuse agencies and anybody who could help her, she was able to increase the prison sentence of her grandson's assailant to better reflect the consequences of his actions.

As a result, Assembly Bill 1987 -- more commonly known as "Adam's Law" --was introduced into legislation and, if passed, will mean longer prison sentences for perpetrators who cause severe and permanent damage to children.

Helen Rael of Fresno is a public relations consultant who has worked tirelessly over the past ten years to promote Arte Americas. Her passion to dispel the common myths and fallacies about the Latino community and to make visible and viable their many contributions has helped to develop Arte Americas as the region's leading center for Hispanic, Mexican and Latino culture.

Helen's love of Mexican culture inspires her to create art and music, attend Chicano events, participate in immigrant marches and political causes, and to raise funds for the "Hispanic Hall of Fame", which she organized in the 1980s.

lJesus Mendez is a youth development officer for the Woodlake Police Department who goes out of his way to connect with students beyond his regular working hours, and makes himself available to his community 24 hours a day, seven days a week. He has served as a soccer coach for Woodlake High School, D.A.R.E officer, camp counselor, and music instructor in a YMCA after school program, as well as participating in sober graduations, dances, and gang intervention projects. Jesus is a married father of eight children ranging in age from two to 12 years.

Fresno resident James Oftedal has served for 13 years as the director of the U.S. Forest Service Central California Consortium, a K-12 environmental, education program that connects underserved communities with the U.S. Forest Service. He helped create a national youth conference sponsored by the Hispanic College Fund called the Hispanic Youth Symposium (HYS) held in Washington D.C., and was instrumental in bringing HYS to Fresno.

(Sept. 8, 2008)