Central California Scholarship Organization to Salute Memory of Benefactors June 3, 2012

A graduate scholarship organization will celebrate 67 years of service in Central California and around the world by honoring the memory of the founders of an educational endowment fund.

Armenian Theological Students’ Aid, Inc. will salute the Yervant, Rose, and Hovannes Levonian Educational Fund at a celebration luncheon at 1 p.m. on Sunday, June 3, 2012. The luncheon will take place in the Fellowship Hall of historic Pilgrim Armenian Congregational Church, 3673 North First Street at Garland Avenue in Fresno.

Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for students and tables of eight are available. Proceeds benefit the global graduate scholarship programs of the Fresno-based nonprofit corporation. More information may be obtained by calling (559) 323-5502, (559) 260-3357, or (559) 593-1576.

A native of Aintab, Turkey, Yervant Levonian emigrated to the United States prior to the Armenian Genocide and settled in Fresno. His parents and siblings endured the forced march of the Genocide and arrived destitute in Aleppo, Syria, 60 miles south of their native city. The family eventually reunited in Central California, where Yervant married Rose Gagosian and together they opened and operated the Peacock Market, a pioneering grocery store. Living modestly and investing their savings, the Levonians left their estate to five charities, including ATSA, the Armenian Missionary Association of America, and the Armenian Studies Program of California State University, Fresno.

On January 8, 1945, just five months before VE Day, Yettem resident Ezras Tellalian met with Fresno pastors Arsham K. Yeramian and Hagop Chakmakjian in the Mason Building law offices of Fresno attorney Gasper Magarian. Remembering a generation of ethnic pastors lost in the genocides of the Ottoman Empire, the quartet formed ATSA, a financial aid organization to assist students of Armenian descent preparing to become ministers, preachers, and teachers of the Holy Bible in the 20th Century.

In the ensuing six and one-half decades, the nonprofit organization they chartered has raised and granted more than $700,000 in scholarships to help more than 200 seminary students at home and abroad earn their entry-level graduate degrees. ATSA Scholars have matriculated in divinity schools across the United States, Dominion of Canada, Near East, Europe, and the Republic of Armenia.

ATSA works in partnership with the New Jersey-based Armenian Missionary Association of America, the Glendale-based Armenian Evangelical Union of North America, and the Beirut-based Union of Armenian Evangelical Churches of the Near East.

The June 3 luncheon will feature Canadian cuisine prepared by Chef Hrant Darakjian and his culinary team, vocal music by Vera Darakjian and Lena Agulian, and remarks by Talbot Seminary student David Azizian.

ATSA is governed by a nine-member Board of Directors: Therese Gulesserian, Harry Halajian, and Philip Tavlian (Class of 2011).Hrant Darakjian, Arnold H. Gazarian, D.D.S., and Reverend Ara Richard Guekguezian (Class of 2012); Rafi Balabanian, D.D.S., Ann R. Karagozian-Sarafian, Ph.D., and Edward Saliba (Class of 2013).

ATSA is a recognized organization of the Armenian Evangelical Union of North America, an ecclesiastical confederation of Armenian Protestant churches, missions, and fellowships in the United States of America and Dominion of Canada.