YWCA Princeton’s St. Nicholas Project is looking for community members, individuals, families, and businesses to help provide holiday gifts to help local families in need celebrate Christmas in their own homes.

The St. Nicholas Project was founded in 2000 by Princeton resident and long-time YWCA supporter Jill Jachera, who saw the need to help families in Princeton. “With limited resources, many parents, especially those new to this country, struggle to make the holidays special for their children,” she said. “My husband and his family moved to the USA when he was four, with no money and no English speaking skills. But he still remembers the acts of kindness from strangers that made his family feel welcome. We want to pay it forward and do the same for immigrant families and those in similar situations throughout Princeton.” 

The project, originally called the “YWCA Adopt-a-Family”, was renamed after its first year in memory of Jachera’s nephew Nichols Nutile, who was killed in an automobile accident in 2001. She continues to lead the drive each year.

Any individual, organization, family, and business can take part. Participants can become “St. Nicholas” and choose to sponsor a large family, a small family, or an individual. Toys, clothes, gift cards and food are greatly needed and appreciated.

Contact Jachera at jill.jachera@gmail.com by November 17 with name, email address, and phone number to receive a “wish list” for a particular family and/or individual. Gifts should be new and unwrapped and must be dropped off on Tuesday, December 12, between 8 a.m. and noon at the YWCA Princeton’s Bramwell House, 59 Paul Robeson Place.

For those who wish to contribute and cannot shop, a tax-deductible donation can be made to the YWCA Princeton. By indicating the donation is for the St. Nicholas Project, the entire donation will be used to provide scholarships for some students in the Young Wonders Child Development Center.