[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 165 (Tuesday, November 19, 2013)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1701]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        HONORING JULIAN NABOZNY

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. ED PASTOR

                               of arizona

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, November 19, 2013

  Mr. PASTOR of Arizona. Mr. Speaker, I rise before you today to pay 
tribute to a Phoenix community leader and businessman, who for 20 years 
now has given back to his community by providing complimentary 
breakfasts to thousands of individuals at his McDonald's restaurant on 
Thanksgiving Day.
   Mr. Julian Nabozny, a native of Argentina whose family moved to 
Chicago when he was 13, went to high school and college in Illinois and 
became a naturalized U.S. citizen. He became a high school teacher, 
mainly so he could pursue his first love--soccer--but soon learned he 
could not survive on a coach's salary. When he learned McDonald's was 
looking for prospective Hispanic owners, he took a shot and worked his 
way up from three establishments in Chicago to now owning five 
restaurants in Phoenix.
   Since he moved to Phoenix in the early 1990s, Mr. Nabozny has built 
his restaurants to offer more than just a family experience; they have 
become local community centers. Besides providing thousands of free 
breakfasts on Thanksgiving Day, his McDonald's stores have provided 
free community resources, such as information about health insurance, 
immigration laws, or free mammograms. He has become a trusted leader 
whose voice lends help to important causes in the Hispanic community. 
He was recently honored as the 2012 Man of the Year at ``La Noche de 
Amistad (The Night of Friendship)'', an event organized by Phoenix 1190 
AM Radio and Mujeres Unicas, a Spanish-language radio program, for 
donating much of his time and personal finances to help those less 
fortunate. In 2000, he won the National Restaurant Association's 
Cornerstone Humanitarian Award.
   In addition, Mr. Nabozny has been a member of the McDonald's Board 
of Directors; president of Chicago McDonald's Hispanic Owners 
Association; treasurer, vice president, and president of the national 
McDonald's Hispanic Owners Association; chair of the company's Hispanic 
Marketing Committee; a leader in McDonald's Hispanic Scholarship 
Program; and is a member of the company's Arizona Board of Directors. 
He is also the Arizona/Nevada representative to the McDonald's National 
Hispanic Board of Directors.
   As he has grown his business, Mr. Nabozny has built his restaurants 
to reflect the diversity of the neighborhoods in which they are 
located. He features Aztec-inspired artwork and a Talavera mosaic from 
Puebla, Mexico in his Phoenix restaurants, among other cultural 
features.
   Mr. Nabozny has said that he believes God saved his life three times 
on separate occasions. Those incidents reinforced his drive to help 
those who are less fortunate. By providing free Thanksgiving Day 
breakfasts and other resources to the Phoenix community, he has 
provided physical nourishment, and in many cases, spiritual 
nourishment, to thousands of his fellow human beings. I have had a 
longstanding friendship with Mr. Nabozny and I admire him greatly. 
Therefore, on the occasion of the 20th year he plans to provide free 
Thanksgiving breakfasts, and to show him our deep appreciation, I ask 
my colleagues today to help me pay tribute to my friend and a great 
community leader, Mr. Julian Nabozny.

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