responses - Armenian Reporter

6 The Armenian Reporter | July 26, 2008CommunityTHIS ARMENIAN LIFEThe bakerby TamarKevonianRoubo and Miruzhan have beenfriends since before emigratingfrom Armenia over 16 years ago.After years of living in Los Angeles,now both their families have settledin Portland, Oregon. They run a successfulbakery whose claim to fameis the nazouk (an Armenian cookie).I came across one of their productsat a local supermarket during a tripto Seattle with Hilma. Curious, Icalled their office to see if they madeany other Armenian baked goods.“Please hold,” said the woman onthe other end. “I don’t know,” shesaid when she finally came back onthe line.“Where else in the area do you sellyour product?” I asked.“I don’t know,” she responded.“Is the owner Armenian?” I asked.“Yes,” she said, finally giving anaffirmative answer.“What’s his name?”“Mike.”“Is he in the office?”“No.” After a moments pause sheasked if I wanted his telephonenumber.“Of course,” I said and wrote downthe number.A few days later, heading southfrom Seattle towards Portland, Icalled Mike, introduced myself,and told him the story of how wefound him. He immediately invitedus over to his house.When we finally arrived, Mikeand Roubo were waiting for us in thedriveway. The house sits back from asecluded road surrounded by openpastures, where two horses werespending a lazy Saturday afternoonpicking at the lush grass. Before wehad a chance to disembark, bothmen were at the side of the car, introducingthemselves and welcomingus. They are both uncharacteristicallytall and lean for Armenians.Roubo is quiet while Mike peppershis sentences with the words “cool”and “duh” as commentary during aconversation.“Call me Miruzhan. Mike is for theAmericans,” he said with a smile.They led us into the house, wherewe met their respective wives,Anoush and Marina as well asMiruzhan’s daughter-in-law, Milen,and his grandchildren, Ani and David(pronounced da-veed).They were all bustling about inthe kitchen and laying a feast onthe dining-room table.“We only came to meet you andhave a cup of coffee,” I protested.“Of course we’re going to have coffeebut first we have to eat and drinktoasts,” Miruzhan said. Althoughprepared on such short notice, thetable was overflowing with deliciousedibles. They had cut short a familyouting at nearby Mount Hood toprepare for our arrival.Just like the adage “the shoemaker’skids have now shoes,”Miruzhan had none of his bakery’sproducts in the house. Ten yearsago he opened the bakery and recruitedhis good friend Roubo.“Roubo is a very good baker,” Miruzhanboasted of his friend’s ability.“In the early days we did everythingfrom baking to packaging todelivering to cleaning,” Miruzhantold of the whole family’s contribution,“but thanks to God we have 30employees now and there’s enoughpeople to do it all.”The bakery produces over 80different products, ranging fromArmenian and Greek to Italian,French, and Russian goods. But itwas the humble nazouk that puttheir little bakery on the map. Itis their number-one selling productand they have protected it witha trademark. Beside the nazouk,they have other Armenian delicacieslike the gatta, the Tabriz-stylepastry, and several other items.Then there are the experiments likethe blueberry nazouk, a particularhit in this part of the Northwest.Miruzhan started the bakery with$1,200 in a 1,000-square-foot facilityand now has revenues of over$2 million and finds that their current,10,000-square-foot, bakery istoo small. They sell their productsmostly through a network of 500supermarkets and small, privatelyowned grocery stores in sevenstates in the West and Northwestand are poised to expand to six additionalstates in the fall.They are proud of their accomplishments.They had spent tenyears in Southern California, wherethey struggled to carve out a life:Roubo as a baker and Miruzhan asa taxi driver. “Drive to survive” ishow he describes his previous life.Finally it was the children that convincedthem to make the move outof the city.“They were at an age where theycould stray,” said Anoush. “Myson went to Glendale High Schooland there would be police at theentrance and helicopters overhead,”she said, referring to the spate ofgang-related violence that plaguedthe school at the time.Now Roubo’s oldest son is aboutto become a lawyer and Miruzhan’sdaughter, a former Miss AmericaJr., is a cosmetics-departmentmanager at Nordstrom’s while hisson, Mher, runs his own business.“He started with $5,000 and nowdoes over $1 million,” boastedMiruzhan, clearly proud of his son.“Hard work pays off. Even thoughthe economy is extremely slow, notonly are we hanging in there butwe’re working ‘fully loaded’ becauseof the beautiful nazouk.”The two families are a tight unitagainst the loneliness that canplague those who are trying to makea new home in a new city. They lefttheir families twice, the first timein Armenia and the second in LosAngeles, in their search for a placewhere they felt they belonged andcould reclaim their self-respect.They are connected to Portland’ssmall but dynamic Armenian community,which is now in the processof establishing a church.“Let’s drink a toast to our Armenians,”Miruzhan said. “Regardlessof where they are, an Armenianalways remains an Armenian, andlet’s work to keep our historicaltraditions for our children and ourgrandchildren. After the grandchildren,things will change a little bit.But as long as we’re here, our grandchildrenwill remain Armenian.”As if on cue, his infant grandsongurgled in his mother’s lap and weall laughed.“We are the luckiest in-laws becausewe’ve never seen a betterdaughter-in-law than the one wehave,” Miruzhan said as Anoushnodded in agreement.“Make sure you include that inthe article,” Milen said to me.After several more toasts, Hilmaand I began to rise from the tableto begin our long journey home.But Miruzhan urged us not tohurry since we had not yet had ourcoffee.“I feel really good that we havenew friends and that we met becauseof an Armenian reason,” hesaid.“Because of nazouk,” correctedRoubo.Avia’s 4th grade class ready to present their over-sized check to the Smile Train organization. They were hoping to raise $250,enough to cover one Smile Train surgery, and raised a whopping $2,504.52, enough for 10 surgeries. (Avia’s above the word“Smile).Charity has no age requirementNine-year-old AviaMatossian is alreadymaking a differencein the worldby Alexandra BezdikianIn the multifarious cosmos ofcomic -book mythology, superheroesserve an important culturalfunction: they allow readers to livevicariously through a subtle veneerof impenetrability, fighting eviland injustice in ways human beingsmay find themselves ordinarily incapable.This is true, of course, onlyfor some human beings, who are infact superheroes.Meet nine-year-old Avia Matossian.She is in fourth grade at theNueva School in San Mateo, California,and she is a superhero. Duringthe day, she does very typicalnine-year-old things. She goes toschool and is a loyal friend, a lovingdaughter, and a big sister. Butby night, this young lady is transformedinto something most childrenher age do not yet understand:little Avia Matossian becomes a socialactivist.“Every year on my birthday, I liketo help and give a donation to anorganization that helps children,”she said. “I’ve been doing this eversince I can remember.”Avia has been donating money tocharity for exactly nine years. TheMatossian family instilled a strongsense of social action and advocacyin both their daughters, donating asum of money in their name eachyear since they were born. Today,Avia is old enough to think aboutwhere she wants to donate herbirthday funds and why, and is oldenough to understand the implicationsof her donation. This year,she chose Smile Train.Partnering with Smile NetworkInternational, Smile Train is anorganization dedicated not onlyto providing “free cleft surgery formillions of poor children in developingcountries, but also to providefree cleft-related training for doctorsand medical professionals untilthere are no more children whoneed help.”For a kid like Avia, someonewho wants to make a differencein the lives of people her own age,someone she can relate to, SmileTrain seemed ideal. “I heard aboutSmile Train and I looked it up onthe Web,” explained Avia aboutpicking her desired organization.“And I looked at the part where theparents wrote stories about theirkids with cleft lips before they hadthe surgeries done, and I was reallymoved by their stories and thoughtAvia Matossian and her friends (with the smiley-face stickers on their foreheads)taking a well-deserved break after the bake-sale.Students were given green happy face stickers for participating in the “SmileTrain” bake sale.it was very interesting. Some kidswere abandoned because of howthey looked. Some parents thoughttheir child was cursed.”After making her own birthdaydonation, Avia came to a life-changingrealization – one that wouldtruly inspire those around her andchange the lives of many children.Avia realized that what she gavewasn’t nearly enough to cover thecost of one surgery. She knew shehad to do more. So she got to work.Her goal was $250, the cost of onesurgery. She sought the help of herfriends and classmates.Avia first gave an informationalpresentation to her 4th-grade class,telling her classmates about SmileTrain and its mission. She asked ifanyone wanted to join her causeand help raise money, and the entireclass enthusiastically signed upfor the task.Thus began the arduous task of organizingthe bake sale that would farexceed anyone’s wildest expectations.With a tremendous outpouring ofsupport from teachers, parents, andstudents from different grades, Aviaand her classmates raised an astonishing$2,504.52 to offer Smile Train.The story gets better.After entering the 4th-grade classinto the cwd Kids clothing “CareContest,” the Nueva School wonthe grand prize and Avia’s class wasgiven an additional $5,000 towardstheir Smile Train donation.What started out as one girl’sdream to help one person becamean entire community’s missionto help as many children as theycould.“Many kids have superficial goals,”said Smile Train’s manager of donorrelations, Michele Sinesky.“Here’s a kid who took her birthdayand wanted to do more and giveback. This year 100,000 childrenwill have this surgery. Thirty ofthose children are directly affectedbecause of Avia and her class. 100percent of her donation will go tothe kids because of these specialcircumstances.”Avia’s parents couldn’t be moreproud of their daughter’s accomplishments.And rightly so. “Thiswhole process has been amazing,”said Renee Matossian. “Whenyou get the ball rolling, it can leadto change beyond what you anticipated.As a child, they know thatthey have an impact in some ways,but adults control the world in somany other ways. So this has beenamazing because they’ve had a tremendousimpact in a very real wayhere. They saw what they can do.”Nine-year-old Avia Matossianis in fact a superhero. She is Catwomanand Wonder Woman andAquagirl and Elektra. She is anyonewho fights for truth and justice,and gives voice to those who don’thave one. Avia Matossian is nineyears old and she’s making a differencein the world.“This was a really interestingexperience, and I think I’dlike to do it again,” she said.