When you meet Eric Smoot and Silviu Gansca, their energy is the first thing you notice. Both men radiate the passion that comes from doing something you love—changing lives through fitness and through their work in the community.
Every year their company, Redefined Fitness in Wilmette, adopts 10 families from a homeless shelter in Indiana. Smoot and Gansca collect toys, clothes and money to ensure these families have something to celebrate. This year, Redefined collected more than $21,000.
“We give back to our neighborhood and to the world at large,” Smoot says. “At Christmas, we help homeless families in Gary, Ind., and last year we also raised $9,000 for AIDS orphans in Africa. We don’t want this to just be a gym, we want it to be a community.”
Smoot and Gansca both had difficult childhoods, making success and the chance to help others, that much sweeter.
A chaotic and unstable childhood in Evanston culminated in homelessness for Smoot when he was 12-years old. His mother’s drug addiction had spiraled out of control. She was afraid her children would be put in foster care, so she sent Smoot and his twin sister to Gary, Ind., to live with an older sister. Eventually, Smoot moved in with his best friend’s family.
“The Jemison family didn’t have a lot either, but they knew I needed a home, and they gave me love and structure,” Smoot says. Their support helped Smoot go to college and return back to the North Shore as a personal trainer.
Gansca faced different challenges half a world away from the North Shore. His parents left communist Romania not knowing if they’d ever see their children again. During Nicolae Ceauşescu’s reign, the few visas that were issued were never given to entire families.
“My parents fled to West Germany and asked for asylum because they wanted something better for us, but to do that, they had to leave us behind with our grandparents,” says Gansca. “They had tremendous faith that they would be able to see us again and be a family.”
His parents worked tirelessly to find someone in the German government who could help get their children out of Romania. It took almost a year, but through their perseverance, they eventually reunited with their children. After Germany, the family was able to get sponsorship to immigrate to the U.S. When Gansca was 12, he moved to Evanston.
In 2002, Smoot and Gansca partnered to open Redefined Fitness.
“It’s a gift to do something you love every day,” Gansca says. “I get to work with people and change their outlook on their entire day. It’s more than just training, it’s affecting their mind, body and spirit.”
