1. I grew up in the south suburbs of
Chicago, although I lived in Detroit, Cleveland and Buffalo before that as my
father was moved from Ford plant to Ford plant designing assembly lines.
2 When I was 16, I interviewed two
young sportscasters in Chicago, Brent Musburger and Greg Gumbel. (perhaps my printed interviews got the
attention of the network?) (I was sports editor of my school paper 3 years)
3. The next year I marched in the St. Patrick’s
day parade…………in Dublin
4. In college here at the U of I, I produced 2 benefit concerts with Harry
Chapin, raising over $20,000 for his charity, World Hunger Year.
5. I also helped set a world record for
vertical beer keg stacking with money going to MDA.
6. Even though I graduated from the UI,
I was the founder of my fraternity chapter at the University of Michigan
7. I worked on the Michael Jackson
Victory Tour
8. I worked back stage at the first Farm
Aid concert at Memorial Stadium
9. I have played basketball against
Charles Barkley and was with him the first time he ever played golf. Charles said twice "Salen is the toughest defender I ever faced"
10. I
refereed the state finals in 4 A Girls Basketball 3 times.
11. I
worked on the Urbana Sweetcorn Festival for 19 years, was the director 5 times
and cooked the corn for 5 years, over 150,000 ears cooked.
12. I
am the co-founder of Austin’s Day, a day of service in memory of Austin Cloyd,
killed in the Virginia Tech shootings. This year will be the 10th
anniversary.
13. I
am Executive Secretary of Champaign Rotary Club
14. I have been the Chapter Adviser of Phi Kappa
Psi at Illinois for 31 years
15. I wad Chairman of the UI Board of Fraternity Affairs, the sanctioning committee
for the UI Greek System.
16. I
have facilitated over 15 I Programs for the UI Leadership Center
17. I
spent 6 years working for the UI DIA and worked directly with Augie Garrido the
winningest coach in college baseball history, Richard “Itch” Jones, who took
SIU to the College World Series and current UI Coach Dan Hartleb.
18. My
beautiful and brilliant sister, Kristina Salen, used to be CFO of ETSY and is now CFO of United Artists, and CFO of WWE
19. I have produced 16 musicals for CUTC and
Champaign Park District. And I can’t sing, dance or act.
20. My
nephew Arlo is a super hero
