MISSION HILLS : Buying a Brick Will Help Ararat Home

Art Arutian has got bricks on his mind. About 4,500 of them.

To raise funds for the Ararat Home of Los Angeles, the community center for the Armenian elderly that sustained more than $750,000 in quake damage, project director Arutian has devised a plan through which people can buy commemorative bricks in the home’s Heritage Court for $100 each.

The 4,500 bricks--each of which will be imprinted with a personal message from the purchaser--will make up a 1,000-square-foot court walk around a granite slab in the shape of Asia Minor, homeland to many of the 300,000 Armenians in the Los Angeles area.

“This idea came to me about 10 years ago,” said Arutian. “But the earthquake did it for us.”

Arutian himself is buying nine bricks, each dedicated to a member of his family.

“And if this works, I’m going to start tearing up some more sidewalks,” Arutian said.

The Ararat Home, one of three such facilities for Armenian American seniors in Los Angeles, provides board and care for 130 people, a 99-bed convalescent hospital, an interdenominational chapel and a museum.