DETROIT, Mich. (WXYZ) — Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrating with the theme 'Pioneers of Change: Shaping the Future Together,' and I had a chance to meet one man who's lived his life helping to shape the future of others by making a positive impact on Detroit's Mexicantown for nearly three decades.
I'm raising the voice of businessman and philanthropist Frank Venegas, Jr.
"That's my first truck," Frank told me. "I built it out of a school bus."
Resourceful from the start, Venegas has built a manufacturing empire.
“I invented this probably about 25 years ago," he said.
The bollard cover is one of his company's many products. Frank is thefounder and chairman of Ideal Group, a family-owned and operated business conglomerate headquartered in Detroit's Mexicantown.
“This year we won our 21st and our 22nd Supplier of the Year for General Motors," Frank said.
It all started with a Cadillac Coupe Deville that he won in a fall festival raffle back in 1979. He sold that car for seed money to fund his first business — Ideal Steel.
And then, Former Tigers player-turned businessman Hank Aguirre convinced him and his partners to move to Mexicantown in the mid-90s.
“We can only fly by embracing one another," Frank said, quoting Aguirre.
Frank has lived by that mantra.
“ You've also made it your mission to improve the neighborhood, specifically working with rival gangs?” I asked.
“Yes, and it was horrible here," Frank replied. "People were afraid. People stayed inside their houses. You really didn't go out at night."
In 1996, he sat down with members of four of the five gangs and founded GRACE — the "Gang Retirement And Continuing Education and Employment" program. His company hired dozens of former gang members.
"We had literally had guys that shot at a, at a car, and two weeks later they're sitting down having lunch with each other, laughing and building things together," Venegas recalled.
He also helped spearhead the Whippet Wipeout Campaign.
"I didn't like them all over the street and everywhere," Frank said.
Now there's a state law banning the nitrous oxide containers that some use to get high, thanks in part to his grassroots campaign.
Speaking of roots, Ideal Group also helped launch Cadillac Urban Gardens — the largest raised bed urban garden in Southeast Michigan. All of the produce is free.
And he's cultivated young minds, too, partnering with Detroit Cristo Rey High School's Corporate Work Study Program.
Oscar and Osmara are a couple of Detroit Cristo Rey graduates who've made a career at Ideal Group.
His latest passion is helping families keep their pets.
“We found out that a lot of the elderly people were feeding their pets first before themselves," Frank said
Now, Frank and Ideal Group are teaming up with Michigan Humane to distribute pet food and veterinary care in Southwest Detroit.
"What are you most proud of," I asked Frank.
"What my grandmother told me to do and what she said, what and how I could be a better person," Frank said.
He's achieved that while helping better the lives of countless others.
Frank's big piece of advice is to be a mentor to young people in your community. He says he's mentoring more than 50 people right now. No wonder we consider him a Pioneer of Change as we celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month.
