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Orange County Register, CA
June 13 2005
Pride of place
Armenians celebrate heritage and raise money at first Orange County
festival.
By JUSTINO ĮGUILA
The Orange County Register
LAGUNA HILLS - Maria Kloby and her family walked into the first
Armenian Festival of Orange County and couldn't wait to sample foods,
check out the booths, and watch folk dancers in colorful and
traditional costumes.
More than 2,000 people gathered to do the same thing Saturday and
Sunday at the Laguna Hills Community Center, celebrating Armenian
culture and raising money for Armenian orphans.
"I'm Filipino, and we've been to many festivals," said Kloby, a
Laguna Hills resident who attended with her husband, Michael, and
son, Benjamin. "We were curious about the Armenian culture."
The festival had two main objectives, according to Tom Kalajian, an
organizer. First, organizers created it to help unify the local
Armenian community, which organizers said now numbers about 25,000
Orange County residents. The other mission was raising money for the
thousands of children scattered throughout Armenia in about 2,000
orphanages.
"Those children are the future," said Kalajian, a Lake Forest
businessman. "This is the first time all of the Orange County
organizations have unified for a festival."
The idea to launch a festival came after Laguna Hills merchants Garo
Mardirossian and Paul Aslanian thought the Laguna Hills Community
Center would be a good place for a festival.
Organizers wanted all 19 Orange County Armenian-based organizations,
most of them nonprofit, to support one another as they raised money
for orphans and celebrated their roots at the same time.
Each table at the event included cards with Armenian facts such as,
"Armenians built churches in a gothic style of architecture a century
before it first appeared in Europe." Another card indicated that
there are between 8 million and 10 million Armenians in the world.
Event organizers hope that guests learned more about Armenian history
and culture and possibly corrected misinformation. Armenians, for
example, are not Middle Eastern. The sweet dessert baklava is an
Armenian creation, not a Greek one.
"It was the right time for this festival to happen in Orange County,"
said Virginia Rhoads, president of the local chapter of the Armenian
Relief Society-Karni. "The Armenian population has grown in Orange
County, and I think that's another reason the festival was needed."
There are similar events throughout the country, including Los
Angeles.
Aslanian spent much of the weekend making sure that festival guests
enjoyed their time as music and dancing spilled out into the grassy
area of the park.
"We're already getting calls from people for next year," Aslanian
said. "Even people in Los Angeles want to participate. I think that
shows that this festival was overdue, and I think it's going to get
bigger."
--Boundary_(ID_l63KpzoPfmHdsq3N8RYUyQ)--
June 13 2005
Pride of place
Armenians celebrate heritage and raise money at first Orange County
festival.
By JUSTINO ĮGUILA
The Orange County Register
LAGUNA HILLS - Maria Kloby and her family walked into the first
Armenian Festival of Orange County and couldn't wait to sample foods,
check out the booths, and watch folk dancers in colorful and
traditional costumes.
More than 2,000 people gathered to do the same thing Saturday and
Sunday at the Laguna Hills Community Center, celebrating Armenian
culture and raising money for Armenian orphans.
"I'm Filipino, and we've been to many festivals," said Kloby, a
Laguna Hills resident who attended with her husband, Michael, and
son, Benjamin. "We were curious about the Armenian culture."
The festival had two main objectives, according to Tom Kalajian, an
organizer. First, organizers created it to help unify the local
Armenian community, which organizers said now numbers about 25,000
Orange County residents. The other mission was raising money for the
thousands of children scattered throughout Armenia in about 2,000
orphanages.
"Those children are the future," said Kalajian, a Lake Forest
businessman. "This is the first time all of the Orange County
organizations have unified for a festival."
The idea to launch a festival came after Laguna Hills merchants Garo
Mardirossian and Paul Aslanian thought the Laguna Hills Community
Center would be a good place for a festival.
Organizers wanted all 19 Orange County Armenian-based organizations,
most of them nonprofit, to support one another as they raised money
for orphans and celebrated their roots at the same time.
Each table at the event included cards with Armenian facts such as,
"Armenians built churches in a gothic style of architecture a century
before it first appeared in Europe." Another card indicated that
there are between 8 million and 10 million Armenians in the world.
Event organizers hope that guests learned more about Armenian history
and culture and possibly corrected misinformation. Armenians, for
example, are not Middle Eastern. The sweet dessert baklava is an
Armenian creation, not a Greek one.
"It was the right time for this festival to happen in Orange County,"
said Virginia Rhoads, president of the local chapter of the Armenian
Relief Society-Karni. "The Armenian population has grown in Orange
County, and I think that's another reason the festival was needed."
There are similar events throughout the country, including Los
Angeles.
Aslanian spent much of the weekend making sure that festival guests
enjoyed their time as music and dancing spilled out into the grassy
area of the park.
"We're already getting calls from people for next year," Aslanian
said. "Even people in Los Angeles want to participate. I think that
shows that this festival was overdue, and I think it's going to get
bigger."
--Boundary_(ID_l63KpzoPfmHdsq3N8RYUyQ)--