ARMENIAN SCOUTS HOLD 40-YEAR REUNION IN PASADENA SATURDAY

Beacon Media News
outs-hold-40-year-reunion-in-pasadena-saturday/
Ap ril 3 2009
CA

Approximately 350 people attended Saturday’s reunion of Armenian
Scouts and their families in Pasadena Saturday evening.

I was privileged enough to be invited to the lavish, catered affair
Saturday at the AGBU building on Altadena in Pasadena. Sponsored in
part by AGBU which is dedicated to the preservation and promotion
of Armenian identity and heritage through humanitarian, educational,
and cultural programs

As the guests arrived and greeted friends from years past, I couldn’t
help but feel the stalwart emotions even though I didn’t understand
one word spoken. Luckily, I later had a translator who clued me
into the various speeches by visiting scout masters from as far away
as Australia.

As guests arrived they were visibly stunned with how each of their
former scouting friends had changed and spent a lot of time looking
at all the photos from the past that accented the walls of the AGBU
hall. In fact, many guests were uploading photos they were taking on
Saturday evening to Facebook for their friends in Iran who were eagerly
awaiting postings of photos and details of the event. Technology that
simply didn’t exist in the early days of scouting have now become a
mainstream tool for almost all involved.

This particular scouting group celebrating 40 years was founded
by Shahen Vartanian in October of 1968 in Tehran at a local AGBU
elementary school called Nevart Gulbenkian. For the first few years
the group was called Gulbenkian School Scouts Group. The name changed
to AGBU Scouts Group in mid 70s. The group started with 20 plus boy
scouts. A few weeks later a girl’s scout group was added with more
than 10 members. The group was headed by Jemma Ghazarian who is now
the honorary head of the group in Tehran.

In the third year, 1971, a cub scouts group was added to the
organization, headed by Armineh Hovsepian, who later married the
founder. The following year a Brownie group was added, along with
groups of boys and girls Venturers.

The total number of members increased through the years. It reached
500 plus in 1977. Then it collapsed to around 100 in 1980, after the
Iranian Revolution. It increased again to up to 300, but it never
quite reached the previous heights again.

Vartanian was the scout master until 1986. He moved to Sydney
Australia where he continues his scouting activities with local
Armenian organizations.

The group continues activities to this day in Tehran with about
200 scouts.

Founded in Cairo in 1906 by a group of eminent individuals under
the guidance of Boghos Noubar Pacha, the A.G.B.U. is perhaps the
most important of Armenian charity organizations throughout the
world. Today it is established in over thirty countries and operates
in cooperation with its 22,000 members to achieve its goals of a
purely humanitarian nature.

Scouting in Armenia began sometime around 1912. Scouting developed
abroad among the refugees who had survived the genocide of 1915-1916
or those that had fled the new communist occupation. Scouting then
ceased to exist in Armenia.

In 1929, The World Scout Bureau recognized the Association of Armenian
Scouts (HAI ARI) based in France, while the association did not have
its own territorial base, it made an exception. This Scout Association
was the first and only association to receive recognition as an exile
Scout Association.

In 1989, communism collapsed and the independent Republic of Armenia
emerged in 1991. The French based Association of Armenian Scouts in
Exile, expressed their wish that Scouting in Armenia should become a
part of the World Scouting Organization as soon as possible. It helped
in the process of creating a national Scout Organization in Armenia.

In 1994, HASK (Armenian National Scout Movement) was officially
founded. Hask has over 2,035 members, boys and girls, spread throughout
the entire country. The French exile group expressed its desire to
withdraw from World membership in order to allow Scouting in Armenia
to become a member of the World Organization. In April 1997, the

Armenian National Scout Movement was accepted into WOSM, becoming
the 144th member.

There are approximately 20,000 Armenians in the San Gabriel Valley and
Glendale’s Armenian population has surged by 65 percent since 1990,
with more than one in four of Glendale’s residents now claiming
Armenian descent Glendale, which has the highest concentration of
Armenians outside Armenia, is now home to over 52,000, up from 31,402
in 1990.

Aside from Asian Americans, Armenian’s are one of the fastest growing
immigrant populations in the U.S.

Few of us know much about the rich culture and diversity of these
people who are our friends and neighbors.

Scouting in Iran became one of the only ways boys and girls could
co-exist in a social way after the revolution of 1978. Subsequently
many moved from Iran and made a new home in the United States.

Another key person in the organizational success of the reunion
was Rick Keshishi from Studio 55 in Monrovia. Monrovia’s Studio 55
printed and displayed the historic photos and an comprehensive slide
show documenting the last 40 years Armenian Scouting, its service as
well as those who participated in so many events, so may years ago.

As guests wined and dined, speakers reminisced about their years in
scouting and how it helped them evolve as young, proud, productive
adults.

Story and Photos by Terry Miller