Humanitarian on the Hockey Team
Reppucci Starts Non Profit, Students Helping Children Across Borders
Published: Friday, February 8, 2013
Updated: Sunday, February 10, 2013 17:02
This year Holy Cross student athlete Jeffrey Reppucci, ‘14 has been nominated one of the eleven finalists for the BNY Mellon Wealth Management Hockey Humanitarian Award.
Reppucci’s time at Holy Cross has not only been filled with hockey these past few years, but also with life-changing experiences. It all started when he went on summer study abroad in 2011 to Moscow, Russia.
For six weeks, Reppucci not only took a class at the university in Moscow, but he also learned about the culture of Russia outside the city.
He made many friends who were from provincial areas, travelling with them and witnessing first-hand how childhood experiences seemed to be lacking as opposed to those who lived in a flourishing section of Russia.
Reppucci also made a connection with how blessed his childhood was and immediately realized “I want to do something.”
When he got back to Holy Cross, Repucci immediately started to use all of the resources he could find, including support and help from his roommate Derek Kump, ’14, advise from faculty and advisors, and a “book from Barnes and Noble that was for idiots starting a nonprofit organization” Reppucci commented as he laughed.
This was how Students Helping Children Across Borders Inc. (SHCAB) was started. SHCAB is a nonprofit organization that not only uses 100% of its donations towards the cause, but now companies can also donate money with the organization fitting under 501CE.
In January 2012, SHCAB received the Davis 100 Grant of 10,000 dollars for its peace project.
This jumpstarted Reppucci into more fundraising and in the summer of 2012 Reppucci went
to Suzdal, Russia.
He lived with a host family for a month and helped the one elementary school there by building a sports complex and providing equipment, as well as by providing posters informing children to make healthy lifestyle choices.
This particular project costed 25,000 dollars in total.
“It was an amazingly difficult experience with cultural and language barriers. There were moments where I was doing backflips, but in the end it all worked out,” reflected Reppucci.
The project in Suzdal made Reppucci want to do even more. Now he is leading projects to be held in El Salvador and Argentina. For El Salvador, Reppucci has been working closely with Ariana Regalado, ’15. They are calling the project Experimentos de Felicidad. In Argentina, Reppucci hopes to renovate unsafe homes for the rural population outside Buenos Aires. Not only is he working on an international level, but Reppucci has also been working with the Worcester
Community.
The goal for this project is for all students in the Worcester Consortium to go out into the city of Worcester and work together with others in the community to fix up certain areas of the city.
This project is headed by Holy Cross students and faculty, who are: Jonathan Stepsis, ‘13, Chris Robert, ‘13, Tom Kelly, ‘14, Alexandra Femia, ‘14, Christin Di Scipio, ‘14, Jack Carter, ‘14, Kelly Burke, ‘14, Adrienne Anderson, ’14, Professor Anthony Cashman, Professor David Chu, Professor Cynthia Hooper, and Professor Amy Wolfson.
The overall projection is to have 50,000 dollars for 1,000 student volunteers to work on 15 to 20 sites in Worcester for this event, which will take place on April 20, 2013. So far, 450 students are signed up, 9 site projects have been set up, and 20,000 dollars saved up. Reppucci hopes that this will become a tradition for the Worcester Consortium and that it will benefit all involved.
is a member of the 
