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The Armenian Weekly; March 1, 2008; AYF Section

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  • The Armenian Weekly; March 1, 2008; AYF Section

    The Armenian Weekly On-Line
    80 Bigelow Avenue
    Watertown MA 02472 USA
    (617) 926-3974
    [email protected]

    http://www.a rmenianweekly.com

    The Armenian Weekly; Volume 74, No. 8; March 1, 2008

    AYF Section:

    1. The Strength of Youth in This Election Season

    2. AYF Alumni Spotlight: Mark Alashaian

    3. CJC Update: February 2008
    By Phil Nigon

    ***

    1. The Strength of Youth in This Election Season

    For anyone who doubted the strength of youth in politics, the Barack Obama
    campaign has once again demonstrated that young people have the power to
    play a deciding factor in bringing about change. More than any other
    politician in recent memory, the Obama campaign has captured the enthusiasm
    and involvement of young people, carrying the Senator from Illinois to one
    primary victory after another.

    Even before the official primary campaigning began, students and youth from
    across the country mobilized around Obama. They saw in him someone with
    genuine progressive credentials and the ability to offer an alternative to
    the status quo of American politics. Without the manipulation of political
    strategists, young people throughout the country came together in Facebook
    groups, student clubs, and local organizations to raise money and campaign
    for Obama's presidential bid.

    Immediately, we saw the results of this mobilization in Iowa, where Obama
    surprised many analysts by winning the first caucuses in the nation. On
    Super Tuesday, we once again saw turnout from young people far surpassing
    the levels seen in 2000 or 2004, sometimes even tripling and quadrupling in
    numbers. In states such as Missouri, where Obama won with just 10,000 votes,
    the 75,000 young people who went to the polls played a decisive role in
    putting him over the edge. What became clear was that students and young
    people were coming out to the polls in record numbers this primary season
    and changing the face of the U.S. presidential race.

    Following the ANCA's endorsement of Obama, Armenian-American youth also
    increasingly joined the push for an Obama victory in 2008. AYF members from
    California all the way to New York have volunteered for his campaign and
    gotten active with "Armenians for Obama" groups in their local communities.
    In this way, young Armenian activists are playing a significant role in a
    presidential campaign that has, in many ways, taken on the life of a
    grassroots movement.

    With Obama's momentum steadily increasing and important primaries coming up
    in states such as Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Ohio and Texas, it is more
    important than ever for young people to take part in the "Armenians for
    Obama" effort in their respective areas. Phone banking drives, campus
    events, fundraisers and rallies in support of the ANCA endorsed candidate
    can play a pivotal role in who is the next person that sits in the White
    House. It is crucial for Armenian-American youth to further organize and get
    involved the political process, not only in the remaining primaries but all
    the way to the November elections.

    It is time to harness our strength as young activists and have our voices
    heard loud and clear in the American political arena.

    For more information about the "Armenians for Obama" campaign and how you
    can get involved, visit www.armeniansforobama.com or contact your local ANCA
    regional office.
    ------------------------------------------ ---------------------------------------------

    2. AYF Alumni Spotlight: Mark Alashaian

    As a child, Mark Alashaian remembers wondering what his older friends were
    doing when they went behind closed doors for AYF meetings. He was intrigued
    by the mystery of it all and frustrated when they told him he was not yet
    old enough to join them. Finally, when he turned 10 years old, Mark's
    parents allowed him to become part of the AYF Hyortik Juniors. From then on,
    he became one of the most active members of his generation and demonstrated
    an unrelenting devotion to the Armenian community.

    In addition to holding executive positions in the New York "Hyortik,"
    Watertown "Gaidzag" and New Jersey "Arsen" chapters, Alashaian was also
    elected to the 1992 AYF Central Executive and served on various Central
    Councils throughout his years as an AYF senior.

    As a long-time member of the AYF Central Athletic Council, Mark was
    instrumental in formalizing what became known as the National Athletic
    Tournament (NAT's) in 1987, when he worked with fellow members of the
    Council to bring all the chapters in the eastern region together in one city
    for an official competition similar to the NCAA men's basketball tournament.
    They promoted it as "The Road to Racine," given the fact that it was hosted
    by the Racine AYF, and, in addition to basketball, the featured volleyball,
    bowling and a finals dance. It was a tremendous success and NAT's quickly
    became one of the most anticipated annual events of the AYF.

    Another major project Alashaian worked on was the 1990 Senior Olympics in
    New Jersey. He was 25 years old at the time and remembers his service on the
    steering committee being one of the most demanding yet memorable experiences
    of his AYF career. Interestingly enough, Alashaian recently got a chance to
    relive these memories when he helped organize last year's Olympics as a
    co-chair of the New Jersey AYF-YOARF Olympics Committee. The AYF decided to
    honor Mark for all of his contributions to the weekend and to the
    organization by naming him "king" of the 2007 festivities.

    When asked to compare his view of the Olympics today to that of the past,
    Alashaian sums up the importance of this renowned event by stating,
    "Activities have changed a little bit but it's still about bringing Armenian
    youth together, educating them, letting them get to know each other, having
    them participate in different types of events together and helping them
    grow."

    Although Alashaian has given a great deal to the AYF and continues his
    contributions through his past 10 years of service on the Olympics Governing
    Body, his involvement in the New Jersey Dro Gomideh and his position as
    chairman of the Camp Haiastan Board of Directors, he feels that he would
    never be able to fully repay the organization for all that it has given him.
    "You couldn't put a price on what the AYF did for me and what it still
    continues to do today," he insists with a sober tone. Some of the things
    Mark credits the AYF for giving him include a greater understanding of
    Armenian identity, life-long friends and relationships, and the ability to
    work effectively with others.

    Today, Alashaian even utilizes some of his AYF experiences in his
    professional field. He currently serves as the vice president/branch manager
    for Starpoint Solutions, a software development company with offices
    nationwide, and believes that being on committees in the AYF gave him "a leg
    up" over others in the business world by teaching him important people
    skills at a very young age. "When you're a volunteer in an organization like
    the AYF, you interface and deal with all different kinds of people from
    different backgrounds and frames of reference," says Alashaian. "It teaches
    you to be tolerant, to listen and work with people."

    As a father of two, one of whom is nine and will soon begin the same journey
    his father began over 30 years ago, Alashaian goes out of his way to implore
    other parents to not only get their kids involved in the AYF, but to be a
    part of it, too. "It's important for your children to realize that this is
    something that you support, something you believe in and something that you
    take seriously," he explains. Speaking about his own children, Alashaian
    says, "I can only hope that my kids have half the experiences I've had
    because, if they do, they will have been lucky enough to gain a lifetime of
    wonderful memories and invaluable experiences."

    In the process, our community will be lucky enough to gain another dedicated
    generation of Alashaians into the ranks of the AYF.
    --------------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------

    3. CJC Update: February 2008
    By Phil Nigon

    It seems like only yesterday that we were all celebrating the New Year with
    a sense of hope for the fresh start 2008 would provide. Imagine my surprise
    when I woke up one morning, looked at my calendar and realized it was
    already February. Last year, the AYF Central Junior Council (CJC) held the
    Junior Winter Olympics-all of them-during the last weekend in February, a
    mistake we soon regretted once the weather had its say. New England,
    ironically, was the most successful at avoiding the bad weather, while both
    the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest games were battered with ice storms, which
    forced us to end the events early.

    We learned from 2007, and this year with Easter so early and the change in
    format of the Junior Educational Weekend, we have decided to push the Junior
    Winter Olympics back to the end of March or beginning of April timeframe.
    This should make everyone's life easier. It will give junior chapters more
    time to arrange transportation; host chapters will also have more time to
    plan; and parents will find some solace in knowing that there are relatively
    few winter storms in the spring.

    At this time, the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest regions have both scheduled their
    games for April 5th weekend, in New Jersey and Racine, respectively.

    New England is still working through a few issues, which should be resolved
    by the time this newspaper arrives at your home.

    I want to take this opportunity to write about the page on which this
    article is printed. The observant reader will notice that along the top
    there is a banner that reads "The Voice of the Armenian Youth
    Federation-YOARF, Eastern USA." Within the organization, this page is called
    the "Junior Page" because its primary purpose is to act as a forum for AYF
    juniors to express their opinions or share their essays, poems or other
    creative work with the Armenian community of the eastern region.

    I want to go back to the Jan. 12th issue of the Weekly, where my last
    installment of this series was published on the AYF page. You can read that
    if you'd like, but if you only read one article in one newspaper this year,
    make it the one next to mine on page 15, titled "Midwest Junior Convention:
    A Step into the Future" by Armen Changelian, a Detroit junior. Seriously. Go
    find that issue in your magazine rack, and if you don't have it handy, then
    shame on you. Contact the Hairenik Association about ordering a back issue
    so you can read it.

    The first time I saw Armen's article and glanced over the opening
    paragraphs, I thought it was written by a parent, or at least an AYF senior.
    I passed right by it and skimmed the rest of the page, then noticed the
    italics at the end, informing me that the author was, in fact, a junior.
    Naturally, I double-checked this new fact against our rosters and confirmed
    that Armen is 16 and, until March, a junior. His article is superbly
    well-written, thoughtful, concise and stands as a shining example of what
    should be on this page every week.

    "Should" is the operative word here. Regular readers of the Weekly know that
    too often, the AYF page is covered with advertisements, ANCA information or
    continuations of articles from earlier in the paper that were too long to
    fit in the desired layout. Now, I respect that the Weekly enjoys its ad
    revenue, that the ANCA is important, and that certain weeks, Garen Yegparian
    or Tom Vartabedian really go on a tear and need the extra space. But when I
    see the AYF page devoid of its intended content, I start to wonder if the
    AYF is losing that voice given to us by editors past. [Editor's Note: To
    rejuvenate the AYF Page, the Weekly added Serouj Aprahamian to its staff
    earlier this month as AYF Page editor.

    The Junior Page has been an institution within the AYF for as long as I can
    remember, but in recent years, contributions by juniors have been few and
    far between. Around April, the CJC sees a pile of genocide-related work come
    in, but I feel that this is likely caused by the annual article contest at
    Junior Seminar in May, not the accessibility of the subject matter. So what
    happened to the day when an AYF junior would attend a community event,
    participate in an AYF meeting, play a sport, etc., then decide to tell
    people about it by writing a few paragraphs in the Armenian Weekly (or the
    Hairenik)?

    The fact is that today, juniors have numerous other, faster, more direct
    ways of self-expression to satisfy this need than they had previously.
    Between e-mail, cell phones, text messaging, Facebook and MySpace, AYF
    members can reach their friends more quickly than ever before. Whether or
    not these new technologies will spell the end of the printed word is not
    something I want to discuss here, as it has already been well-argued by
    smarter people than me on both sides. I do, however, want to let everyone
    know that the AYF is not simply ignoring this shift in behavior, in the
    hopes it will go away. History has shown that any group that is unable to
    adapt to change inevitably fails, and we would not have lasted 75 years were
    we not up to the task.

    More to come next month, and just as a reminder, anyone who has any
    questions, comments or article submissions for the CJC can reach us by
    e-mailing [email protected].
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