En Route to Ukraine: An Evening of Education & Inspiration

November 30, 2023 @ 6:00PM — December 4, 2023 @ 8:00PM Eastern Time (US & Canada) Add to Calendar

Hamilton Hall: 9 Chestnut Street Salem, MA 01970 Get Directions

En Route to Ukraine: An Evening of Education & Inspiration image
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Come learn about the history of the crisis in Ukraine and support two local humanitarian volunteers.

This incredible evening is being co-sponsored by Hamilton Hall, the Pickering House, and the Friends of the Broad Street Cemetery.

Career Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering will speak about the historical relationship between Russia and Ukraine. As the former ambassador to Russia, India, Israel, El Salvador, Jordan, and Nigeria – as well as being the US Ambassador to the United Nations – Mr. Pickering knows a thing or two about what has led up to this conflict.

Kenneth Glover and Joseph Varga will then recap their two recent trips to the Ukraine, where they provided funds, food, and moral support to a variety of grass roots organizations, with a special emphasis on those providing safety to orphans and displaced people. Their stories are moving and important.

Proceeds will benefit Mr. Glover and Mr. Vargas's next trip to Ukraine.

Thomas R. Pickering

US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs 1997-2000

US Ambassador to the UN 1989-1992

Thomas R. Pickering is Chair of the Board of the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. He holds the personal rank of Career Ambassador, the highest rank in the U.S. Foreign Service. In a diplomatic career spanning five decades, he was U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation, India, Israel, El Salvador, Nigeria and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. From 1989 to 1992 he was Ambassador and U.S. Representative to the United Nations in New York. His last assignment with the Department of State was as Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs from 1997 to 2000.

Upon leaving government, Ambassador Pickering served as Senior Vice President for International Relations and a member of the Executive Council of the Boeing Company for five and a half years. He is currently Vice Chairman at Hills and Company, which provides advice and counsel to a number of major US enterprises.

Kenneth Glover

Kenneth Glover was born in 1970 in Beverly, MA to immigrant parents from Great Britain and Scotland. He has an associates degree in the Liberal Arts and another in Mortuary Science. He is a licensed Salem tour guide and offers historical tours through Salemwalkingtours.com.

He enjoys additional work as an election worker and serves the role of Warden in his ward and precinct in Beverly. He is a member and past Clerk of North Shore Friends Meeting (Quakers). He also is the Vice-President of the Friends of Broad Street Cemetery in Salem and advocates for its historic preservation, as a green space and important pollinator garden. He like Joseph have developed a concern for the Ukrainian people and believe Ukraine is a nation already in possession of Liberty. Kenneth lives and votes in Beverly, Massachusetts.

Joseph Varga

Joseph Varga, was born in Sopron, Hungary in 1962. There he worked on a collective farm, in manufacturing, as a lumberer, for the Hungarian railway and post office. Dissatisfied with the culture of communism he planned and executed a daring and risky escape to neighboring Austria. He was once declared a traitor in his hometown and threatened with arrest and imprisonment if he returned. While in Austria he was sponsored to come to America and later became a naturalized citizen of the United States of America.

He has worked for many years as a driver for FedEX. In 2019, Joseph and Kenneth visited Ukraine for the first time and began to develop a concern for the people of Ukraine. They recently returned from their third humanitarian trip to the country since the all out war began in 2022. Joseph lives and votes in Beverly, Massachusetts.


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