05-21-2023 Harford Magazine - Flipbook - Page 20
SAFE
HAVEN
A displaced Ukrainian family
is living in Harford County,
thanks to two generous
sponsors and an innovative
new government program
BY MARY CAROLE MCCAULEY Harford Magazine
PHOTOGRAPHY BY KENNETH K. LAM
wo-year-old Mark Radius stopped speaking after Russian
missiles destroyed an apartment building near his home in
the Ukrainian city of Odesa last summer. The smiling little
boy with the soft brown hair, usually so eager to offer visitors
peanuts and pretzels and to ask for hugs, began having panic attacks
that left him mute.
That’s when his parents knew they had to leave, even if it meant
saying goodbye to family members they might never see again.
Andrei and Violetta Radius posted a request for American sponsors
on the Facebook group, Uniting for Ukraine-US Sponsorship, shortly
after the July 1, 2022 attack. Within days, their plea had captured the
attention of Harford County residents Jordan Stave and his partner,
Anthony Blake Clark.
By September, the Radius family was living in the basement of
Stave’s and Clark’s 18th century farmhouse in Fallston. They are among
the more than 270,000 displaced Ukrainians who have relocated to
America since the Russian invasion, according to the U.S. Department
of Homeland Security.
“We had been attending a birthday party for my brother’s 1-year-old
son,” Andrei Radius, 27, said.
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| Summer 2023 | harfordmagazine.com