For the first time, La Cañada High School’s Armenian Club was recognized as the “Club of the Year.” The organization experienced increased membership and enthusiasm this year.
Forty-eight students attended the first meeting in longtime faculty adviser Justin Valassidis’ classroom. Over the course of the school year, the group had 10 lunchtime meetings — at which members enjoyed food provided by supportive parents — and heard from a range of speakers, including Arick Gevorkian, LCHS dad and career consultant, who spoke about Armenian cultural and social history, and Tahlene Gourdikian of the Armenian Lighthouse Charitable Foundation, who explained its wide range of service opportunities. Gourdikian’s presentation motivated club members to set aside a Saturday in March to collect medical equipment and daily necessities for underprivileged families and then transport them to the Lighthouse Foundation warehouse in Long Beach.
The club also implemented a number of other projects, including working on the Rose Parade float of the Armenian-American Rose Float Association.
In April, the club marked the 102nd annual remembrance of the Armenian Genocide by attending a workshop, where members viewed a documentary film by Dr. Kay Mouradian about her mother’s survival of the genocide, and meeting the filmmaker. Students also used giant maps of historic Armenia and the world to mark, with their own photos, the birthplaces of their great-grandparents and to show their families’ migration routes all the way to La Cañada Flintridge. The members then displayed these maps during the week of April 24-28 at a school exhibit table with other reference materials, and were thus able to explain to the LCHS community the far-reaching implications of the Armenian genocide. On April 24, 30 Armenian club members participated with 80,000 others in the Los Angeles “March for Justice,” calling for recognition and remembrance of the genocide. And about 20 members got together to see the movie “The Promise” along with several of their LCHS teachers.
“This year’s LCHS Armenian Club has surpassed all of our expectations, having given the students of LCHS, whether they happen to be Armenian or not, the ability to socialize, bond and expand their cultural horizons through food, music and education,” wrote club President Haig Manoukian in an email.
The executive board also included co-Vice Presidents Tatiana Safarian and Lynette Aslanian; secretary Armand Manoukian, treasurer Arsen Tujian, parent liaison Melody Sagarian, and freshman representatives Noy Chatoyan and Alec Tujian.
Armenian Club Recognized for Its Efforts in 2016-17
