Armenian Community Says Thanks to Red Cross With Dollars

Brought together by an earthquake, an unprecedented gathering of seven diverse Armenian organizations has raised $50,000 for the local Red Cross.

The nine-month fund-raising effort by the Glendale Armenian community, which culminated last Friday in a $75-a-plate banquet, raised the money for the Glendale-Crescenta Valley chapter of the relief organization.

And for the first time, it brought together hundreds of Armenians, most members of groups with diverse and independent agendas.

“To be able to rally these organizations around any single cause at this point was extremely difficult,” said Hamo Rostamian, a Glendale commercial development consultant and primary organizer of the fund-raising effort.

Other pressing issues--Armenia’s rocky relations with neighboring Soviet Azerbaijan, the country’s changing political climate and the continuous immigration of newcomers from the Middle East--have demanded the attention of local Armenian organizations, Rostamian said. “The Armenian community at this point is going through a very crucial time,” he said.

The earthquake, of magnitude 6.9, devastated Soviet Armenia in December, 1988. Soon after the quake, two archbishops of the Armenian Apostolic Church, who represented rival prelates that had been divided politically, met in a Hollywood parish hall to coordinate relief efforts in Los Angeles’ Armenian community.

The feat in Glendale, likewise, was nothing to scoff at, organizers said. The campaign to reward the Red Cross’ efforts to aid the quake victims linked seven of the community’s diverse political, religious, educational, social and charity groups: the Armenian General Benevolent Union; the Armenian Relief Society; The Armenian Educational Foundation; St. Mary’s Armenian Apostolic Church; the Armenian General Athletic Union; the Armenian National Committee, and the California Courier, a Glendale-based, English-language Armenian newspaper.

“Usually each group does things on their own. This is the first time all the organizations are joining hands and working together,” said Harut Sassounian, publisher of the California Courier. “The Red Cross was very, very helpful to Armenia. We wanted our own Red Cross to be well-prepared in such an eventuality.”

The $50,000-donation bolstered a campaign by the Red Cross to raise $1 million, much of which will fund a new headquarters and emergency operations center in downtown Glendale’s old fire station No. 32. The 71-year-old chapter has garnered about $650,000 so far for the renovation project, expected to be completed next summer, said Bill Dutton, executive director of the local chapter.

Specifically, the donation will help purchase a $100,000 mobile disaster unit--a van capable of providing food, supplies, communication equipment and room to work at minor or major emergencies. The chapter now has no such vehicle, Dutton said.

About $15,000 was raised at last Friday’s banquet, a black-tie affair that brought almost 350 people to Castaways restaurant in Burbank. That collection was buttressed by $5,000 contributions from each of seven prominent Glendale Armenians: Ed Khachatourian, Dave Tatevossian, Norick Toomanian, Harout Yepremian, Varto Mazmanian, Mimo Baroian and Hamo Rostamian.

The other $50,000 needed to purchase the mobile disaster unit was contributed by a local bank, which asked to remain anonymous, Red Cross officials said.

Helping the relief organization was an appropriate single agenda, fund-raiser organizers said. The American and International Red Cross provided almost $6.5 million in cash, about $8 million in products and services and 227 planeloads of supplies to the ravaged area, the relief organization said.

For Hagop Dermegerdichian, a Glendale doctor and vice chairman of St. Mary’s Armenian Apostolic Church, the fund-raiser was a direct expression of gratitude. Dermegerdichian and others used a local phone line set up by the Red Cross after the quake to learn whether their relatives in Armenia had been affected.

For other Glendale groups, it was the second “shnorhagalem”--thank you--in less than a year. Just weeks after the earthquake, the Armenian Relief Society, along with other Armenian organizations, sponsored a blood drive at St. Mary’s in Glendale that netted 250 pints for the local Red Cross.

A second drive is scheduled for Dec. 17.

“We just want to say thanks in different ways,” Dermegerdichian said. “It’s an Armenian tradition.”