Project SAVE Gala Picture Perfect

What’s in a photo? Well, if it was taken in 1946 inside a Watertown building called Kondazian Coat Factory, plenty! The picture shows Armenian immigrant employees and perhaps children of those refugees sitting around tables filled with libations and what appears like mezza plates. The people are wearing smiles for the most part and the look of Armenia reflected in their eyes. The photograph was supplied by Janet Khozozian Shemligian from Mashpee and served as a centerpiece for a Project SAVE Gala on May 8 at Karoun Restaurant in Newton. It was an evening under the stars as Greater Boston Armenians gathered at this eatery to schmooze over conversation and exchange conviviality, much like that image taken nearly seven decades ago. Pictures don’t lose their value. They simply punctuate and define our existence, as Executive Director Ruth Thomasian tells you. They are our link between the past and the future. A while back, I interviewed a class of Armenian School students from my church. I gathered the children in one classroom, bent on picking their brains for a story. Question of the day was simply this: “If you lived in 1915 and were told the Ottoman Turks were about to invade your village, what would you take with you while escaping to the mountains?” Aside from the expected answers of food and water for survival, one suggested a camera, another a radio. Their pets. A grandmother being led to safety. A Bible and a history book, along with a musical instrument. A six-year-old replied, “My bike, so I could escape faster.” Only one answer received a duplicate vote: photo albums and pictures, so we might visually cling to those we love and lost. I found the responses all pertinent, especially the photography. The ages of those 2 children were 8 and 11. I’ve kept this story for posterity. The evening was more than a glass of Chablis and hors d’oeuvres; it was a prelude to Project SAVE’s 40th anniversary next year and a chance to celebrate 39 years of success—all of it under Thomasian’s eagle watch. In attendance was a cadre of volunteers, including 87-year-old Sophie Tolajian, a poster child for her generation. In her own words, “The pleasure is all mine.” Keeping the body and mind active at such an advanced age is the best medicine any doctor could prescribe. On hand were a number of familiar people from the community. Greeting them at the door was Karoun owner John Eurdolian, who opened his cornerstone restaurant 38 years ago. Not only did he throw open his premises but offered up the complimentary mezza plates. We chatted a bit and shared a commonality. “I don’t know how that woman does it,” he said, pointing to Thomasian. “All these years, keeping a tradition like this going with limited resources and meager quarters. It’s been the ultimate mission, a labor of love!” Eurdolian also offered a few words of public wisdom when it came to the formalities. Both he and Thomasian hung up their shingle around the same time and have shared a friendship ever since. And each of them pursued their own cause—an insatiable appetite to feed the soul through food and photography. “Alone, no one can save the Armenian heritage,” Thomasian pointed out. “Together we can make a difference.” Thomasian has taken her show on the road, appearing in Troy, N.Y., and Hartford, Conn., for genocide commemorations and a lecture series. An exhibit is planned next April in Mission Hills, Calif., called “Light before Darkness: Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.” In recent weeks, she joined the Armenian Genocide Education Committee of Merrimack Valley at Wilmington High School and Northern Essex Community College in Haverhill, educating those students through her visual displays. Prior to that, she was in Newton at the Photographic Historical Society of New England with a program titled, “Historical Memory through Photographs.” Office assistant Suzanne Adams has been on site for several years as a self-proclaimed “adopted Armenian.” Like Thomasian, she’s a Simmons College graduate and complements the organization quite nicely. “Ruth has turned ordinary history into something extraordinary,” Adams noted. “Her appreciation toward ordinary Armenians is just as provocative.” The point I wish to make is that you don’t always need a Times Square gathering to get the message across. It’s not always about the big speeches and the hoop-de-doo. Sometimes, the results are more effective and digestive amid a small gathering of people willing to listen and take heed. The Project SAVE encounter on May 8 pointed that out nicely.

Project SAVE Gala Picture Perfect

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Tom Vartabedian

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Tom Vartabedian

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