BY PATTYL APOSHIAN KASPARIAN
Wow. What a night! After diligently planning for the last few months, the Armenian Cultural Foundation hosted its Annual Banquet on Sunday, April 11. A full capacity crowd of more than 700 people were in attendance. The Master of Ceremonies, activist Charles Ghailian, engaged the audience as this year’s theme, Together, We Serve and Preserve, ran strong throughout the Program.
The lights dimmed and the crowd grew silent as a video was projected onto four screens highlighting the accomplishments of the ACF family in the past year.
The rest, anyone can report. Food was great. Crowd mingled. We turned away attendees due to space constraints. We reached our fundraising potential. It was a great event!
Above all this, there are two areas which deserve to be highlighted.
The Committee
The Keynote Address
The Committee was comprised of some of the community’s movers and shakers. Each committee member was appointed for a reason—be it fundraising, background, knowledge, clout, marketing sense or style. One common denominator was the Committee’s “roll up your sleeves and work” mentality.
As the marquee event of the year, standards were to be upheld. Yet, when the Organization continues to stress the importance of prudency and efficiency, the Committee was faced with some tough choices. We started with visions of gold-plated silverware, white glove service and a 90210 zip code—all for a triple digit price tag. We concluded with style, elegance and the comfort of home and exercised rationality with chic sophistication.
Time Magazine called this era “The Decade from Hell” and “when you are going through hell,” Winston Churchill advised, “keep going.” That’s what the Committee did. We kept going. In the face of one of the worst global economic downturns in history, the Protocols, empty promises from President Obama and a razor thin win in the House Foreign Affairs Committee, we kept going. Blow after blow. Promise after promise.
The Keynote Remarks delivered by Armenian Revolutionary Federation Bureau member Dr. Viken Hovsepian served as the highlight of the event. I often want to thank our speaker—not for his volunteer hours and leadership, but for treating the community as they should be treated—as knowledgeable and passionate members with opinions. Our organization does not look down at its members. It provides us with resources, opportunity and education. The ACF empowers the community and allows supporters to grow. It takes pride in watching them speak and defend their own opinions.
That’s exactly what our Keynote Speaker did Sunday evening.
Our rights.
The importance of agreement
Our purpose
Our goal
The Armenian identity
Unity
Mentioned above were the running themes to Hovsepian’s remarks.
To any knowledgeable and unbiased supporter, it’s simple. It’s powerful, structured, comprehensive, rational and valid. It’s the building blocks we need to continue the activities we do for our community.
In one of my past articles, I noted Helen Keller, “The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight, but has no vision.”
Thank you for our vision!
As for the organizing committee, on a personal note—I couldn’t imagine working with you when we were first appointed. Now, I can’t imagine working without you! Go Red Go!
who is Red?