Donations
Monetary Donations should be mailed to:
Saint George Church
Kollecas House
7701 Bradley Blvd
Bethesda, MD 20817
If you are making a memorial donation, please indicate that on the memo line.
To make an online donation in memory of Chris Collier, please use the following link:https://stgeorge.ccbchurch.com/goto/forms/515/responses/new.
About The NIH Kollecas House
Approximately thirty-five years ago, Dr. John Nihoyianopoulos, a cardiologist from Greece, and Dr. Andrew Morrow from NIH were post-graduate students at Johns Hopkins University. At that time, Greece did not have the facilities for open-heart surgery. The two medical doctors joined forces and agreed that when Dr. Nihoyianopoulos returned to Greece, he would begin sending patients, mostly children with congenital heart malformations to NIH for therapy.
St. George came to the rescue when it moved to its present location. Helen May, in consultation with Father George Papaioannou, obtained permission to use part of the White House on the church grounds. The same facility was used for the church office, as well as the sexton.
Mr. Chris Collier, realizing the inadequacy of the existing housing facilities, offered to provide a building to accommodate the sexton and our NIH guests. Mr. Chris Collier built the Kollecas House in memory of his parents, Anastasios and Olga Kollecas.
Initially, ninety percent of the patients admitted to NIH were children with congenital heart malformations. Gradually, the program became more diversified and patients with other diseases, including adults, were admitted. The numencal growth of new patients was augmented by the return for re-evaluation of former NIH patients. During the approximately thirty years that the program has been in existence, hundreds of patients from Greece and the United States have been admitted to NIH. For many years, Julia Plomasen served as the liaison for the project acting as the advisor and interpreter and providing other services for the patients. Currently Eva Borsas is in charge of the Kollecas House.
The bulk of expenses for the program are provided by private donations deposited into a special account and administered by the Philoptochos. In addition, an endowment fund was established by the Pappas Foundation for the NIH project.