Local charity comes to rescue of Romanian boy

SPANISH FORK — A weekend charity auction organized for a 9-year-old Romanian boy, who suffered serious burns in a house fire, drew in more money than its grateful sponsors expected.

With the help of friends and family, Brigham Young University students Ashley Ludlow and Jessica Free, both 20, organized a charity auction Saturday night at Primrose Retreat Day Spa in Spanish Fork to raise money to bring Marius Vasile Dasianu to the U.S. for reconstructive surgery.

By the end of the night, the auction raised an estimated $3,200. Subsequent donations following the auction raised another $5,000. Combined with the results of previous charity efforts, the group has raised an estimated $22,000 to benefit Marius.

"We got a lot more than we expected," said Ludlow, a BYU junior from San Diego studying childhood development. "We felt the support from people who came."

Team Marius — Ludlow and Free's charity group — has secured airfare, and Shriners Hospital in Los Angeles will foot the cost of reconstructive surgeries for Marius' and subsequent procedures. But Ludlow said they still need to cover other costs, including translator fees, travel and housing expenses for Marius and his brother.

In November 2007, Marius woke in the middle of the night to find himself and his home engulfed in flames. He managed to escape through a window, but the blaze left him scarred with burns covering 75 percent of his body, and, worse yet, an orphan.

Romanian doctors amputated Marius' fingers because of the severity of the burns, and they performed skin grafts. But the boy who once flashed a 1,000-watt smile remained severely disfigured. For a month and a half, he lay in St. Maria's Children's Hospital in Iasi, Romania, completely neglected — except for his older brother who traveled four hours by taxi every other week to visit.

Then entered Ludlow and Free.

The two BYU students came to the hospital as part of an internship program through BYU's School of Family Life. They met Marius when they joined a group of fellow students to wish him a happy birthday on Jan. 28. Ludlow said she was hesitant at first because she is "squeamish" around blood.

"I have a really hard time with scenes like that," she said. "He's a bit hard to look at at first."

Free, from Mesa, Ariz., also expressed surprise at seeing Marius' mangled face, but that feeling soon passed when she looked into his crystal-blue eyes.