Appreciating Those Who Give

EAST PEORIA ― The ICC Educational Foundation has held its biannual donor tribute to recognize the continued support that members of our community have given the students of ICC by expanding the donor wall that faces the East Peoria Campus bookstore.

On the evening of April 3, the foundation filled the East Peoria Campus Atrium with those donors who were to be recognized. Standing there in front of the bookstore, donors were able to see their names added to the newly updated ICC Educational Foundation Donor Wall.

Foundation documents divided donors into 10 categories based on the level of their cumulative monetary donations. These categories of donors ranged from “Friends,” who have donated at least $2,500, to “Visionaries,” whose donations have exceeded $1 million. Any donor who was a first-time contributor to at least the “Friend” level or “moved up” to a higher level of total contributions was invited to be recognized at the ceremony.

In total, there were 118 donors who were either new to the Donor Wall or newly advanced in their “giving category,” according to event papers. And this number didn’t even include those college employees who pledged to donate a portion of their salaries to the foundation.

The top category of monetary donation saw two new additions, Ameren Illinois and Harold L. Harsch Jr., a Peoria native who left ICC $1 million in his will in 2012. They join the prestigious company of Caterpillar Inc., Lee and Mary Morgan, OSF Saint Francis Medical Center, and Peoria Promise Foundation on the list of “Visionaries.”

All of these donations to the Educational Foundation are used primarily to fund scholarships for students at ICC. Two of the speakers at the event were students currently benefiting from this funding. The first of those students was Wilmette-native Peter Wettersten, who came to ICC to study construction management.

“The money that has been given to me has changed my family’s life tremendously by alleviating some of the financial pressure on my parents. My father being on disability and my mother working harder than anyone I know, this has helped to remove some of the weight off of their shoulders,” said Wettersten.

Khyati Delada, a native of India who is at ICC studying pre-med, was the second student to speak.

“It is amazing that there are funds out there that people are willing to give you money so that you can study and help the community to be a better place. I come from a country where not everybody gets an education, and it’s really sad. But I believe that education is a birthright to everybody,” said Delada.

“ICC is really helpful to the students who want to do something in life but don’t have funds to go directly to a four-year university, and I love that about ICC,” said Delada. “The Educational Foundation here helps students like me, who are determined, to become something and help the community to be a stronger place to live in.”

Wettersten felt similarly supported in his goals.

“With the help of the scholarship that I got, I have been able to watch my dream turn into a reality,” said Wettersten.