Nika Thayer
(1919-2008)

Born in Russia in the momentous year of 1919, Nika, still an infant, escaped to China with her parents. The family emigrated to the United States, settling first in California and then in Connecticut. During World War II, Nika worked with the Army Specialized Training Program at Yale University and then as a codebreaker in the Signal Corps in Washington, DC. She went on to work for Radio Free Europe in New York for 15 years, helping Soviet citizens behind the Iron Curtain obtain news from the West. Russia, where she had lived so briefly, remained profoundly important to her.

Nika supported Heart to Heart’s mission unconditionally, nourishing our growth financially for over a decade. Her donation in 2003 reflected her commitment to our vision and provided the resources for us to expand our work beyond St. Petersburg, to reach children in the heartland of Russia. Nika understood that the return on her investment would not be immediate, but she had faith that it would ultimately lead to thousands of children’s lives being saved.

Today, tens of thousands of Russian children have been the fortunate beneficiaries of Nika’s humanitarian instincts and her resources. Nika was a philanthropic visionary and an international idealist, with the faith to support a new course that others might have written off as an unachievable dream. Nika’s largesse was far reaching. [Talk to Sharon about adding in a few sentences about Nika’s support of CCI.]

Nika passed away on February 19, 2008, leaving Heart to Heart a major bequest from her estate. Her gift has proven transformational, enabling our organization to scale our work in Russia to develop a network of six children’s heart centers. Each year, at these self-sustaining centers, specialists trained by Heart to Heart save thousands of children.