RegDay hits Orange County, California

An event which brings adoptees and birthparents one step closer to reunion while also spreading awareness to the general public about adoptee rights issues, is on the menu at Border's Bookstores on October 4th, 2003.

On Saturday, October 4, 2003 at the Borders Bookstore at 3333 Bear St., Costa Mesa, CA., 92626 and inside the South Coast Plaza, Huntington Beach resident, actor, and Director of Adoptees Caucus for Truth, Ray Buffer, will be on hand along with other volunteers for RegDay from 12:00 Noon until 9:00 PM.

RegDay is an annual event to increase public awareness of the International Soundex Reunion Registry; a free humanitarian service better known as ISRR. ISRR is a non-profit mutual consent registry dedicated to reuniting adult family members separated by adoption, divorce, or other dislocation. Lauded in the nationally syndicated Dear Abby Column, the ISRR has reunited thousands of adults all over the world.

RegDay is organized by the Adoption Registration Coalition, a network of volunteers from various search and support, adoption reform, and adoptee rights activist groups. There are typically many sites nationwide. Among the venues that have hosted RegDay sites around the nation are such businesses as Borders Bookstore, Barnes & Noble, and other independent book stores as well as churches, libraries and post offices.

For adopted people who wish to search for lost kin, state laws permanently sealing adoption records can make it that much more difficult if not, impossible. Original birth certificates are even sealed in cases of step-parent adoption. RegDay can be a source for information on a variety of records-access reform issues of interest to both the adoption and genealogy communities. Recent open records victories in Oregon and Alabama have helped to raise awareness of the need to make these personal government-held records available to those to whom they most intimately pertain. Unfortunately there remain 44 states that categorically deny adult adoptees access to their original birth certificates. With over 6 million adoptees in the U.S and countless other siblings, relatives, spouses, and friends affected, this topic is not only timely, but it is also universal.

RegDay volunteers around the nation staff tables set up with ISRR registration forms, informational brochures, and lists of resources helpful to those interested in search, reconnection and adoption reform. There will also be information for the general public. RegDay visitors can obtain assistance in filling out ISRR registration forms, and receive referrals to local resources.

Visitors to the South Coast Plaza Borders Bookstore location will also have the option of signing a petition to make federal law that will allow all adult adoptees the same access as non-adoptees to their original birth certificates, regardless of which state they were born in.

For more information on the Adoptees Caucus for Truth or this event, contact: raybuffer@socal.rr.com