The event is free, but donations will be accepted. Reservations are recommended.

Izidor Ruckel and Simona Stewart will be addressing the issues of Romania’s abandoned children and the long-lasting effects of the Romanian communist regime, as well as the messages of looking beyond oneself and seizing opportunity

Izidor Ruckel, 30, was born in Romania during the communist regime of Nicolae Ceaușescu, and survived the abandonment of his family, a disability due to polio, and 11 long years of abuse and neglect in Romania’s House for Irrecoverable Children.

In 1989, communism ended in Romania. Shortly after, the international media began exposing deplorable conditions of an estimated 100,000 children being warehoused in hundreds of state-run institutions. These warehouses were created for children who had been born as a result of the dictator’s decree to ban birth control in hopes of increasing Romania’s population, but then promptly abandoned, due to the extreme poverty facing the nation.

Mr. Ruckel was one of the children caught on video as a result of this investigative journalism. Eventually, he was adopted by an American family. His book “Abandoned for Life” chronicles the bitter truth about life in the institutions, as well as the challenges he faced when given opportunity for a more normal and bountiful life. His book will be available at the event on Sunday.

Simona Stewart also grew up under Romanian communism. She, too, experienced the effects of communist control. As a high-schooler, she personally witnessed the extreme neglect and deprivation suffered by the children being housed in the overcrowded institutions. She vowed to do something about it.

Today, Stewart is the Founder and Director of House of Angels in Romania, a privately-run facility offering a home to 21 abandoned children, as well as after-school enrichment and physical therapy, free of charge, to Romania’s disabled and poverty-stricken children.

Though Romania is now a democracy, working with a post-communist government and population does not come without great challenge. For the past 10 years Stewart has been faced with the never-ending reality that it takes years, even decades, for a country to climb from the rubble of poverty and for mentalities and paradigms to change. It is no different when it comes to child abandonment and the treatment of these children. But due to her compassionate and tenacious spirit, giving up has never been an option.

Angels in Need is a Davidson-based nonprofit founded by Jeni and Lee Cooper of Davidson, to enrich the lives of children with special needs, and their families, both locally and abroad. Their target populations include children in the Lake Norman area, as well as abandoned, orphaned, poverty-stricken and disabled children abroad, specifically in Romania through House of Angels and in the Republic of Georgia.

“It was the ABC News 20/20 series and Izidor’s story back in the 90’s that inspired us to adopt our daughter from Romania 10 years ago,” Jeni Cooper said. “We later adopted our other daughter from the Republic of Georgia. It was the inspiration of our daughters, coupled with the need we witnessed in these two countries and in our own Lake Norman community that we established our nonprofit.”

WANT TO GO?

To reserve a spot or for more information on Angels in Need and the “Think Occasionally” event, visit their website at www.angelsinneed.org. In addition to this main event, Ruckel and Stewart will also be visiting Lake Norman Charter School, Woodlawn, Davidson College, and Cannon School, to share their stories with the students, and the Lake Norman Rotary Club.