OUR NEIGHBORS: Long way from Romania to Alaska Job Corps

PALMER — Born into a broken home halfway around the world, one of our neighbors is getting a hand while giving with another.

Vili Belisle was born in the small Romanian town of Vulcan in 1991. He spent the first eight years of his life with alcoholic and drug addicted parents who abused both him and his younger sister.

After his parents divorced, Vili and his sister were put into foster care. Rather than improving their situation, the abuse got worse, Vili said.

“The same things happened as before, but on a little higher scale. That left a lot of bad memories,” he said. “I thought I would never have real parents.”

Vili and his sister spent four years in different foster care situations. Then, when he was 12, a husband and wife from Anchorage expressed interest in adopting the two.

“They found our picture on a website they were shown by friends of theirs. … My mom thought ‘Hey, that little boy needs a mom,’” Vili said.

Some 5,000 miles and five different airplanes later, Vili and his sister made it to their new home in 2002.

Ken and Bethel Belisle adopted Vili and his sister two years later. This made them the eighth and ninth adopted children into the family with six other biological children.

Vili said he was home schooled for six years. He learned English in his first two, but struggled with the rest of his school work.

“Back in Europe, I barely went to school. I did not have the structure that children need to learn,” Vili said.

He said his father’s secretary was the first one to mention Alaska Job Corps. His parents discussed it, then Vili applied and started on Sept. 8, 2008.

Now, the 18-year-old lives on the Palmer campus and is going through the facilities maintenance program. He is fluent in English but said “a lot of the females like my accent.”

He said he likes facilities maintenance because he gets to fix things that are broken.

“I first started in human resources, but I didn’t like rotting my eyeballs into my brain looking at a computer,” Vili said. “I love what I’m doing now.”

Vili said he plans to graduate Job Corps next year with both a high school diploma and some practical work experience.

“I try my very best to improve in both my academic and trade work so I can get a career once I graduate,” he said.

After graduation, he plans to move to Spokane, Wash., to be close to his aging grandparents. There, he hopes to find work with a maintenance department to save money and get more training.

In the meantime, Vili finds ways to give back in gratitude for all he has received.

When the United Way of Mat-Su came to the Job Corps campus to film a video for their website, Vili volunteered to help out. He originally worked behind the scenes with the set up and production, but he does make a brief cameo appearance on screen.

Being the direct beneficiary of similar services, Vili works with the local adoption agency. He shares his story to show the tangible effects of what such services have.

Asked if he ever wants to return to Romania, Vili said the price is quite prohibitive, but “maybe some day down the road,” he said.

Contact Todd L. Disher at todd.disher@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.