It all began with a simple act of kindness. As a young attorney, Mark Eskander noticed that the elderly attorney in the office next door was having problems with mobility, and that his wife had begun accompanying him to work. One day he passed by their door and found her with her head in her hands. Sensing her despair, he asked if there was anything he could do to help.
Over the next few months, he found himself helping more often as Irene Salinger struggled to help her husband’s clients while Harry’s health declined. Many of these clients were elderly, housebound or had suffered through the Holocaust. After Harry’s death, and with Irene’s blessing, those clients became a large part of Mark’s practice.
Fast-forward thirty-five years. Now a successful attorney in the field of estates and trusts, Mark administers many of his clients’ trusts, often donating to charitable causes that they would have approved.
Because of his gratitude toward the Salingers’ obstacles in his early years, he decided to support the nonprofit in which Tom Salinger, Harry and Irene’s son, is involved- and as the former Chairman of the Board, Tom’s primary allegiance is to Goodwill of Orange County.
Mark began supporting Goodwill through the donation of a guitar and funds at the first annual Goodwill Gala, even matching funds raised during the live auction. Last year, he donated $25,000 from a client’s trust. And this year, he donated an additional $25,000, from the Luise Mandel Charitable Trust.
This year’s Gala on October 27th was an especially poignant night, as it would have been the 41st birth day of his wife Gerilyn’s son, Andrew, who died in an accident in 1999.
According to Mark, “I know that Goodwill of Orange County can give others the same jumpstart in their careers that my first encounter with the Salingers gave me.”
