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WIU Thanks QC Couple for Latest Gift

WVIK News

Officials of Western Illinois University thanked a Quad Cities couple Thursday for the latest in a long line of gifts. It'll pay for scholarships and promote small businesses and Mexican culture. 

Bob and Blenda Ontiveros began giving money for scholarships to WIU eight years ago. Their latest gift, only described as "incredibly generous," will also support the Small Business Development Center and International Trade Center at the Quad Cities campus, and fund two public television documentaries about Mexican history and culture. 

"I'm not a graduate or alumni, but Blenda and I have been very fortunate. We've made a lot of money and we had a great business and now at our age, we have to make sure it goes to work."

 
Bob Ontiveros is the chairman of Group O, a marketing and packaging company based in Milan, and the founder of the Quad Cities Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

"We want to make sure that we start accelerating the education so that workers and people that want to have a business - that want to start a food program, maybe want to have a bread plant - they have to be educated about how to run a business."

On June lst Western Illinois University will raise money for minority scholarships - with all gifts matched dollar for dollar by Bob and Blenda Ontiveros. 
 

A native of Detroit, Herb Trix began his radio career as a country-western disc jockey in Roswell, New Mexico (“KRSY, your superkicker in the Pecos Valley”), in 1978. After a stint at an oldies station in Topeka, Kansas (imagine getting paid to play “Louie Louie” and “Great Balls of Fire”), he wormed his way into news, first in Topeka, and then in Freeport Illinois.