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Mike Hanson introduced our first speaker, Fred Salek (pictured above) to give his classification talk. Fred explained that his classification is "Law" and under that classification, there are several different categories. Fred said that his specialty was corporate law and patent litigation. He was involved with some energy companies which included working for firms involved in the shale oil extraction business in the '80s. He later had the opportunity to work with a firm involved with solar energy, starting in 2010. The story of his career has some heroes and a lot of scoundrels. One such character was Maurice Strong, an oil businessman from Canada.
Fred related some accounts of his charitable work, which included serving as president for several foundations. He is a Past President of the Tarrytown (NY) club where they raised about $25,000 each year with a rubber ducky derby. This was an all-hands-on-deck event that required a lot of effort from all of the members of his club. Tarrytown is famous for its large Halloween parade. Fred got to serve as Grand Marshall several times, where he would ride in hissharp-looking Mustang and the other Rotarians would walk behind in the parade and hand out flyers for their events.
He told us that he was drawn to the area because of his love of history, the close proximity to some friends and relatives, and he loves the countryside here. Next, Mike Hanson introduced Victoria Skoog (pictured above) to give her classification talk. Victoria is the Medical Director at Confederate Woods Animal Hospital. She took over the operation of the practice when Jody Dickey needed to move. She first started thinking of a career as a veterinarian when she was a young girl because of her love for animals. She wanted to attend Cornell University, and with some extra effort through joining the FFA, she was accepted there. She was awarded a Rotary scholarship while in high school which was applied to her undergraduate work there. While attending Cornell, she joined the Rotaract club. It was there that she got involved in charity work by selling beads to raise money for victims of Hurricane Katrina. Her club also worked to clean trash out of the ravines on campus. She was also awarded a scholarship for her community service through the Cornell Traditions. Her community work was to volunteer at a homeless shelter. This taught her a lot about poverty and gave her a unique view and understanding of the homeless community and how difficult life in a shelter can be. She attended Ohio State for her post-graduate work, where she enjoyed their program focused on people interaction. While there she did volunteer work to rescue greyhounds and she also went to New Orleans to fix up a shelter. Her career started in a large practice in eastern New Jersey and then she moved closer to home and worked in a small, husband-and-wife practice before finding the opportunity that she now has to manage a business. She enjoyed managing doctors and solving the problems that present themselves. She wrapped it up by telling some peculiar stories of animals that she's treated. |
