PASADENA—Seven days a week, fifty-two weeks a year, the new Pasadena Armenian Center is busy welcoming Homenetmen scouts and leaders. The young Armenian Americans are people just like Pasadena resident Anni Sahagian, who is a Homenetmen scout leader for young girls who have recently joined the largest Armenian American scouting and athletic organization in the world. The Pasadena “Azadamard” Homenetmen chapter, which was founded in 1977, proudly has over 550 members, with nearly 100 scouts and over 400 athletes.
The new Pasadena Armenian Center offers a safe and convenient environment for Homenetmen scouts and athletes, with the added benefit of a new gym that serves dozens of basketball teams. The gym is a state of the art facility, with new flooring, padded walls and a brand new scoreboard. The community has rallied around the new athletic facility and has helped the local Homenetmen chapter to ensure that a new generation of scouts and athletes has a community center they can all be proud to call home.
“Homenetmen has given me the opportunity to learn new things and pass down my knowledge to the young people in my chapter,” explained Homenetmen scout leader Anni Sahagian as she smartly worked on her chapter database on a recent Sunday afternoon at the Pasadena Armenian Center. She added, “Scouting is not only a place where you are taught discipline and responsibility, but it is also an environment that I share with my fellow brothers and sisters. Scouting builds character and self esteem. Throughout the 12 years that I have been a scout in the Pasadena “Azadamard” chapter I have been given the materials to elevate myself and others with me. Homenetmen made me the person I am today,” Anni concluded.
“I am proud of the central role the Pasadena Armenian Center has played in strengthening the Pasadena “Azadamard” Homenetmen chapter,” remarked chapter Chairman Berj Bedoyan. “Our ability to serve our youth is directly tied to having a safe, clean and accessible center and with the Pasadena Armenian Center, we have just that,” Chairman Bedoyan added.
Hrad Yacoubian, a longtime Homenetmen basketball coach for the Azadamard chapter, recently shared that he views the Pasadena Armenian Center “as the beginning of the future.” As he shared this thought, dozens of young Armenian American girls, proud of their local Homenetmen team, dribbled their basketballs in unison.
The mission of the Pasadena Armenian Center is to serve the dynamic and diverse Armenian American community in the City of Pasadena. A number of distinguished community organizations are based out of the Pasadena Armenian Center. These organizations include, but are not limited to, the Armenian Youth Federation “Nigol Touman” Chapter, the Armenian Relief Society “Sosse” Chapter, the Hamazkayin “Shahan Shahnour” Chapter, the Homenetmen “Azadamard” Chapter, and the Armenian Cultural Foundation, among others. Additional information regarding the Pasadena Armenian Center, situated at 2242 East Foothill Boulevard, can be secured by visiting the center’s Facebook page or by bv visiting here.
Our best investments are those we make in educating and inspiring and nurturing our youth.