For Immediate Release
August 04, 2006

YOUNG BENEFACTORS SUPPORT ARMENIA FUND USA’S AGRICULTURAL INITIATIVE

Evening cocktails organized by young professionals helped raise funds for an agricultural development project in Karabakh

NEW YORK, New York – Combining fun with the useful – what could be more exciting for a group of young professionals who organized an evening of cocktails to benefit Armenia Fund USA’s Agricultural Initiative in the Mardakert region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The event, which took place on July 26, 2006, was a big success. Thanks to young benefactors coming from all walks of life, more than $13,000 USD were raised to support the Fund’s efforts of improving life in the impoverished villages of a war-torn region.

Generously hosted by Edele Hovnanian at her residence in New York City, the evening of cocktails and mezze was put together with the help of Armenia Fund USA’s junior committee of young professionals, among them Eric Baroyan, Kate Barry, Lisa Charkoudian, Nyire and Greg Melconian, Talene Najarian, and Margot and Randy Takian.

Left to Right: Alyssa and Tom Bonomo, Talene Najarian, Eric Baroyan, Amy Katcherian

For the Fund’s first event of the year the committee worked very hard to put together an evening that would be both fun and informative. Great music, delicious Armenian food and drinks, an atmosphere of friendship and unity for a common cause – all added to the excitement! Taking time out of their busy schedules, about hundred young benefactors attended the event. In an environment as interesting and as vibrant, everyone became everyone else’s friend. Irina Lazarian, Executive Director of the Fund and Margot Takian, chairing the junior committee, welcomed the guests with a brief introduction of the “Rebirth of Artsakh” Regional Development Program, what the Fund would focus on for the coming year, and the project the fundraising drive was supporting. Guests were able to find out more about how the agricultural development initiative, one of the components of the Regional Development scheme, would help small farming communities in rural villages of Karabakh to improve agro industry sector of the national economy, become entrepreneurs and to uproot poverty from these much suffered regions.

Left to Right: Lisa Charkoudian, Irina Lazarian (Armenia Fund USA), Margot Takian, Nyire Melconian, Kate Barry, Talene Najarian

Involving young minds in the day-to-day activities of Armenia Fund USA is an important way of sharing with them a unified goal – reaching out to the less fortunate in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. Young people strengthen the Fund’s mission of building solid infrastructure upon which sustainable development rests.

All proceedings from the young benefactor’s event are 100% tax-deductible and will go toward the implementation of the Agricultural Initiative, the economic underpinning of the Regional Development Program for three key regions of Nagorno-Karabakh.

ABOUT ARMENIA FUND USA: ARMENIA FUND USA, founded in 1992, was the first of Hayastan All-Armenian Fund’s 19 international affiliates and serves constituents in all states east of the Mississippi. As a non-profit, non-governmental, nonsectarian organization, the Fund represents all Armenian constituents.

Armenia Fund USA is the largest contributor among the 19 international affiliates – supporting strategic infrastructure projects in Armenia and Karabakh, and having helped build 138 miles of roads, 100 miles of waterways, 36 schools, 3 electric transmission networks, 210 residential buildings and 15 healthcare institutions.

Armenia Fund USA’s Mission is the development of strategic socio-economic infrastructure in Armenia and Karabakh, focusing on major projects such as major highways, schools, drinking water to communities and humanitarian programs in education, training and medical facilities. The Fund has adopted a policy to go “Beyond Bricks and Mortar” to provide sustainability for projects it sponsors.

To learn more about Armenia Fund USA, please visit our website at
www.ArmeniaFundUSA.org or call us at 212-689-5307.

Armenia Fund USA
80 Maiden Lane, Suite 301
New York, NY 10038