Saint Nicholas Shoes and Saint Nicholas College, Iasi, Romania

Site Progress to Date

Situated in the city of Iasi and under the patronage of Saint Nicholas, the college hosts dedicated theologian students embodying Christian values and morals.  Their goals are to help guide and change the way society lives through virtuous responsibility, professionalism, and dedication to help our brothers and sisters in need.

Their mission is to provide an environment conducive to volunteer work directed towards the community, valuing moral and religious teachings. Their values are grounded in the Christian faith, education, responsibility, respect, and social assistance.

SPOC President Mariana Cuceu with volunteers from Saint Nicholas College during site trip summer of 2022

SPOC Contributions

A total of $35,743 has been granted to this association starting in 2015 until October of 2022.

Financial support has been granted towards the purchase of student educational kits and computer tablets for students with major social and learning challenges; purchase of clothing, shoes, and toys for poor children; renovating a school from the remote village of Piscu Rusului, Iasi; Covid -19 assistance medical equipment for hospitals in Iasi, Piatra Neamt and Botosani.

As a child back in Romania each one of us grew up with St Nicholas tradition, the first holiday of Christmas season. The evening of December 5th we would polish our shoes and set them at the door waiting for St Nicholas to fill the our shoes with some presents. It used to be a magical night, and we where barely getting any sleep –we would be so excited to see what we will find in our shoes in the morning.  For many children in Romania this magical dream night is not possible. Life is not easy for them — not only they are missing the bare necessities but many times even food its a rare treat. We, at Saint Paraskeva Orthodox Charity, are trying hard to bring a smile and a glimpse of happiness on these challenged children by providing some relief of their burden. This is how St Nicholas project started back in the fall of 2015. With a simple call for help, to the Romanian community from Chicago: the response was amazing! Donations of clothes and gently used shoes started to pour in! We were able to send over 2,600 pounds of goods to under served are of Rasca, (Suceava county) and Iasi during 2015.

During 2016 we continued this project and keept collecting clothes and shoes that people do not wear anymore. Given the generosity of our kind donors, we where able to ship again in 2016 in the under served areas of Iasi, Rasca, Cluj county and Maramures over 2,700 pounds of clothing and shoes. This is a beautiful example of how little does it take from us to bring great joy to others. It is a beautiful example of caring by giving love to human kind. Thank you for supporting our project. We share with you some testimonials and pictures from the recipients of these gifts that have been made possible through your generosity. Finally we would like to thank all volunteers, our donors and all charity coordinators that work so hard to see these donations shipped to destination.

You can read about the impact of last year donations in the letters that we received from Romania. Both are in Romanian and you can find them here (PDF) and here (PDF).