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10 January 2023 | prestonhollowpeople.com Community 2022 PERSON OF THE YEAR: VICKY GLIKIN
Temple Emanu-El cantor a champion for Ukrainians, social justice
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Cantor Vicky Glikin continues to support her homeland of Ukraine with the help of her congregation at Temple Emanu-El. COURTESY TEMPLE EMANU-EL
By Rachel Snyder
rachel.snyder@peoplenewspapers.com
Vicky Glikin, who joined Temple Emanu-El in 2016, remains connected to her homeland Ukraine, where she lived until she was 13.
So shortly after Russia invaded the country in February, the Preston Hollow synagogue’s senior cantor traveled in April 2022 to Warsaw, Poland. There, she helped lead Seder and used her Ukrainian, Russian, and English language skills to welcome and support Ukrainian refugees arriving at the train station.
She’s continued to support relief efforts there since returning to Dallas, earning our admiration and making her Preston Hollow People’s choice for the newspaper’s 2022 Person of the Year.
“I’ve stayed in touch with the volunteers whom I met when I was there, and since I’ve come back, I’ve been … sending money over to the volunteers whom I had met and supporting their work,” Glikin said. “I’ve (also) been speaking and continuing to raise awareness … I’ve tried to keep up with some of the families I met when I was there and try to help them from afar in ways that I can.”
She also marshaled area residents to donate items for a Ukrainian couple who’d arrived in Dallas and were setting up an apartment.
Nastya Sokyrina, who’s based in the Czech Republic but has known Glikin since they were children in Ukraine, volunteered with her friend in Poland.
“We met people on the railway station from the train which came every day with Ukrainian people, and we tried to give them all (the information) they need,” Sokyrina said. “Vicky one night … helped one family to stay in (a) hotel for one night because it was a family — mother, father and three kids — and they did not sleep (in) two days.”
“People need some love, some hugs,” she added.
Sokyrina had high praise for her friend.
“She’s perfect,” she said of Glikin. “Everything that she has now, she did it … herself.”
Glikin’s trip was made possible in part by Temple Emanu-El’s disaster relief fund.
“We really felt that she was (in Poland) not only out of her own heartfelt commitment … but was really there sort of as the embodiment of our hearts, which were aching and breaking here,” said David Stern, senior rabbi of Temple Emanu-El. “She’s a remarkable leader — a remarkable leader of prayer, a fantastic teacher, a beautiful pastoral presence in both times of joy and sorrow.”
“Social justice has been at the core of who we are. When (Glikin) came to us, she already had that sense of focus herself, and so that’s manifest in her work with Ukraine, but it’s also sort of manifest in everything she does,” he continued.
Glikin has maintained strong ties to Ukraine, but she’s also put down roots in her new home of Dallas. She became involved in her children’s schools, promoting inclusion and respect, and supports other organizations she’s passionate about, including North Texas Food Bank, the Anti-Defamation League, and the U.S. Holocaust Museum.
SUPPORT HER CAUSES
Sustain Temple Emanu-El’s continued relief efforts for Ukraine by donating to Temple Emanu-El’s disaster relief fund at participate. tedallas.org/disaster-relief-fund.
Readers’ Choice: The Salvaggio Sisters Write, Illustrate Book
By William Taylor
william.taylor@peoplenewspapers.com
Are you having trouble beating anxiety? Perhaps you should search out childlike advice.
Our October issue introduced Salma and Sofia Salvaggio.
When not gardening or studying other subjects, the Preston Hollow sisters channeled their pandemic stress during COVID-19 lockdowns into a research project and then that research project into writing and illustrating a book.
“We did research on yoga, breathing, meditation, hobbies, and other techniques to help with anxiety,” Salma said.
They made such an impression that readers voted them our 2022 Reader’s Choice Persons of the Year. Thank you to all those who submitted nominations in October and voted in our online poll in November.
The 9- and 10-year-olds finished Beat Anxiety: Help for Kids of All Ages in early 2022, filling it with information, ideas, and activities to help children overcome anxiety and worry. Their parents self-published it.
The girls also launched the Always Be Kind Foundation, named after their slogan. Visit smartandsassysisters.com to learn more.
The CEO of multimillion-dollar textile business Nextt serves as president of the Dallas Park and Recreation Board, co-chairs the Indian American CEO Council (IACEO), and is on the boards of the U.S. India Friendship Council, the University of Texas at Dallas Executive Board, Texas Tech Innovation HUB at Research Park, Big Brothers Big Sisters International, and MD Anderson Board of Visitors. In 2022, Gov. Greg Abbott named him vice chair of the Texas Economic Development Corporation Board of Directors.
Stephanie Elizalde
Dallas ISD’s new superintendent had big shoes to fill. Still, she’s jumped in as Thomas Jefferson High School prepares to reopen after its destruction in the October 2019 tornado, the district re-evaluates boundary lines for Walnut Hill International Leadership Academy, Foster Elementary, and Withers Elementary, and most superintendents face difficult questions regarding school safety in the wake of the shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde.
Tom Luce
The founder of the nonprofit think tank Texas 2036 and CEO of biotech initiatives at Lyda Hill Philanthropies helped champion Biolabs at Pegasus Park, a shared space and stateof-the-art lab, which opened in 2022 with the goal of raising Dallas’ status as a biotech and healthcare innovation hub.
Victor Vescovo
The “most interesting man in Dallas” had quite the year. He donated a 2019 Protector Targa 310 boat to the Dallas Police Department for patrolling Lake Ray Hubbard, shortly thereafter joined the crew flying on Blue Origin’s NS21 mission to space, and, during a June expedition, discovered the USS Destroyer Escort Samuel B. Roberts (DE-413), known as the “Sammy B,” more than four miles below the Pacific Ocean.
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Bachman Lake, other locations get boxes to encourage reading for youth
By Maria Lawson
maria.lawson@peoplenewspapers.com
The Preston Hollow Rotary Club’s latest initiative is the installation of tiny libraries of children’s books at Bachman Lake.
The newest sharing library was installed Nov. 26 at the playground at Bachman Lake. Another one will be placed at the site’s new aquatic center when it opens.
The project started about a year ago when the group donated boxes of books to the leasing offices of local apartment buildings. When that wasn’t receiving much traction from residents and local children, the members decided to take it outside and install a bookcase at Bachman Lake, free to the community.
“The first one we put in, the kids just came up and were looking through the books before we could even get the books in the box,” said Susan Cowley, the Rotary Club’s longest-serving member. “I went back two days later, and we probably put in 50 books, and there were probably 15 left.”
In addition to the present and soon-to-come cases at Bachman Lake, mini library boxes in local apartments remain. The Rotary Club hopes to install a future location at Marcus Recreation Center.
“If you learn to read, you can access the world,” Cowley said.
The mini libraries are funded by Rotary Club member Cheryl Drane Skipworth and managed by Cowley, as she regularly swims at Bachman Lake.
The Rotary Club also is partnering with Black 2 Life, an organization in Oak Cliff and South Dallas that donates books to “empower Black men to strengthen underserved communities through education and inspiration.”
“They have a bigger reach than we do right now,” Cowley said. “They’ve been in operation for five years, and we’ve just started, so we’re partnering with them.”
AT A GLANCE
To stay up to date with the Preston Hollow Rotary Club, see its website at rotary5810.org/clubinfo/ preston-hollow.
The Preston Hollow Rotary Club installed its first Bachman Lake mini library in late November. COURTESY PRESTON HOLLOW ROTARY CLUB
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