PRESS RELEASE
Hayastan Foundation Canada Inc.
All-Armenian Fund
280 Sheppard Avenue East, Suite 215,
Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M2N 3B1
Tel: (416) 332 0787
Fax: (416) 332 0736
E-mail: toronto@himnadram.org
ARMENIA FUND TORONTO BANQUET, A BIG SUCCESS FOR THE CONSTRUCTION
OF THE SCHOOL AT SPITAKASHEN VILLAGE
Toronto, June 8, 2009 – On Sunday, June 7, at the Armenian
Community Centre, Mr. Ara Vardanyan, the Executive Director of
"Hayastan" All-Armenian Fund, the key-note speaker at the annual
banquet of Armenia Fund Toronto, kicked off the fundraising for
the completion of another school project in Artsakh.
Amongst some thirty projects realized, the Toronto chapter of the
Fund has already built four schools in Artsakh. The 5th school is
for the Spitakashen village, in the Martuni Region of Artsakh.
With the help of previous fund-raising campaigns, the construction
is well underway.
The MC of the evening was Tenny Nigoghossian, who gave a high
level overview of the Fund and emphasized its humanitarian purpose
of helping our compatriots who needed basic infrastructure. Before
blessing the tables, Rev. Father Meghrig Parikian, of St. Mary’s
Church, spoke about the virtues of "giving".
After the cultural program, the status of the construction and the
financial status of the project were presented. Through video, the
principle of the Spitakashen school, Mr. Hayrabetyan made a direct
appeal and offered his thanks to the Toronto community for
building a modern school for the village.
Mr. Vardanyan, who was recently elected to the Director’s position
in May, gave an eloquent speech about the recent activities of the
Armenia Fund’s office in Yerevan, where over the last year in his
"Acting Director" capacity, had come up with a lot of innovative
fund raising ideas vastly expanding the base of the internal
donors throughout Armenia and Artsakh. Mr. Vardanyan also
presented an overall strategy of the Fund worldwide for the coming
years.
"We are very excited about building our fifth school in Artsakh
because we are convinced that in 2040, the president of the
Republic of Armenia or NKR will be from one of the graduates of
our schools. If not the position for the president, we believe
that our schools will graduate students who would become renowned
scientists, diplomats, artists, doctors and other professionals."
said Migirdic Migirdicyan, the chairman of the Toronto Chapter,
answering his own question of "Why are we doing all this?"
Mrs. Calabrina Boyajian, who in 2008, had organized and led a
joint Toronto-USA West Coast Armenia Fund Bike-a-thon, announced
the new ride for 2009, which will take place in September, from
Monterey to Los Angeles, again for the construction of the
Spitakashen school.
Mr. Vazken Terzian emphasized the importance of "National Giving".
After that, Messrs. Kourken Sarkissian and Sarkis Yacoubian, long
time benefactors of the Toronto Chapter, offered a challenge to
the audience, of "matching funds for every new dollar raised"
during this function. The offer electrified the donors bringing
the grand total of the drive from this evening to $200,000.
Another high point of the evening was the presentation of a $5,000
cheque to Mr. Vardanian, by two student representatives, Victoria
and Ari. This amount was collected under the motto "From the
students of Toronto Armenian schools to the students of Artsakh".
The banquet ended on a very high note with a presentation to Mr.
Ara Vardanyan, of a special book containing one of the best
portrait photography collections by Yousuf Karsh, who was a world
renown photographer and the only Canadian-Armenian listed in the
"Top 100 People of the 20th Century" by the Time magazine.
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Hayastan Foundation Canada Inc. All-Armenian Fund is a non-profit
organization established in 1993 with the aim of facilitating
humanitarian assistance and infrastructure development in Armenia
and Nagorno Karabakh.
From: Baghdasarian