Patricia Field and Tony Shafrazi
Garo Armen
NEW YORK — Children of Armenia Fund (COAF), a nonprofit organization whose goal is to better the lives of rural Armenian children, held its seventh Annual Summer Soiree on June 20 at the PHD Rooftop Lounge at the Dream Hotel Downtown. Among the special guests were Tony Shafrazi, Patricia Field, Edward Barsamian, Tigran Tsitoghdzyan and Armen Keteyan. The annual summer fundraiser raised more than $80,000 for a new high-tech library, part of COAF’s SMART Initiative, intended to make a lasting impact on education.
“Every one of you counts in trying to bring the rural people of Armenia back up to where they deserve to be, so we are counting on you,” said Dr. Garo H. Armen, COAF’s chairman and founder, after discussing COAF’s SMART initiative and its expected impact on rural youths and their family’s lives.
A SMART Center Library is an innovative open-concept area that houses technological educational resources and reading materials. The library will be equipped with media and global subscriptions, as well as access to a broad array of information, services, data and audio-visual content. It will be a place to both read and think — where group discussions are fostered, research is done, and big ideas are born.
The technology within will provide a link to the vast field of knowledge able to be grasped beyond the chalkboard of previous rural Armenian classrooms. The center is intended to be a window for kids and their families into a different world; one in which they can see a brighter future.