Celebrating our communities

Published: Saturday September 12, 2009

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One of the many ways our communities in the United States have transformed themselves in recent years is through a welcome focus on Armenia, with its many needs and the many opportunities it presents. With so many community programs focused on Armenia, sometimes we have a hard time categorizing the news we are covering:

On Thursday night, September 10, dozens of Armenian-American young professionals (and two or three not-so-young ones), dressed to the nines, gathered for a $100-a-head reception at an elegant Manhattan venue. Community news? Yes, but they were there to support the villagers of the Baghramian district of the Armavir province of Armenia through the Children of Armenia Fund.

The graduating class of St. Stephen's Armenian Elementary School in Watertown traveled to Armenia.

Interns from the Armenian Missionary Association of America spend a few weeks serving in Armenia.

The list goes on. And if it's not a group from the United States traveling to Armenia or supporting it in some way, then it's a group from Armenia being hosted by our communities.

Ask AGBU staff, however, and they'll tell you the bulk of their resources go to community programs, schools above all. If they have a summer intern program in Yerevan, they also have a longer-established and quite successful summer intern program in New York. And, of course, thousands of children in schools in California and throughout the world.

It's just that sometimes people take longstanding community programs for granted. We shouldn't. The best of these programs ensure that we continue to exist and grow as vibrant communities. And without cultivating individuals, families, and communities with a deep love for their Armenian heritage, and an active commitment to it, we would be left with very little.

These reflections are inspired in part by the spectacle of the AYF Olympics in Providence over the long Labor Day weekend, preceded as it was by the death of Rev. Torkom Hagopian of Waltham, Mass. Yes, St. Stephen's school takes its graduates to Armenia every year; but would those children make that pilgrimage if Der Torkom and dozens of hard-working parishioners, parents, teachers, staff members, and donors had not spent the last 25 years building and sustaining that school?

Facebook helps people keep in touch, strengthening bonds. Yet there's nothing like sweating it out on the dance floor with thousands of fellow Armenians – some very old friends, some new acquaintances, and many you're never introduced to but know are there, part of your community.

And while we can watch Armenians achieve milestones in sports – be they world champions or school medal-winners – on television or YouTube, being there at the Olympics allows us to applaud them in person, energizing them and ourselves as well.

So while we certainly welcome the attention every community organization is lavishing on Armenia, we pause today to celebrate the everyday efforts that make our communities tick and grow.