New York—The Armenian National Committee of America Eastern Region (ANCA-ER) will be honoring longtime Hai Tahd activist Alice Movsesian at the 8th Annual ANCA Eastern Region Banquet on Sun., Dec. 7, at the Ritz-Carlton Battery Park Hotel in New York City.
The ANCA Eastern Region will present Alice Movsesian of New Jersey with the Vahan Cardashian Award at this year’s ANCA-ER banquet in New York City on Sun., Dec. 7.
“We’re honored to present Alice Movsesian the Vahan Cardashian Award for her decades of dedicated service to our nation,” said ANCA of New Jersey Co-chairperson Karine Shnorhokian. “Her generosity of time and spirit has touched so many lives—here in New Jersey and in our Homeland—and serves as a model for community activism.”
Alice Movsesian was born and raised in New York City where she graduated from a commercial high school with a specific focus on business skills and started her adult life working as a bookkeeper for a textile firm. After an extensive career, she retired as a CFO for a conglomerate of men’s and women’s fashion companies.
Service to her community was a constant parallel to her growing business career. An alumnus of the AYF and later a member of the ARF (including the Hai Tahd Committee), Ms. Movsesian was the first woman member on the Board of Trustees at St. Illuminator’s Cathedral from 1971 to 1980, as well as delegate to Church National Religious Association (NRA) conventions.
Immediately after the devastating Spitak earthquake in 1988, Ms. Movsesian worked closely with the late Arthur Halvajian for providing emergency medical assistance to hundreds of victims and facilitating the adoption of 14 Armenian children in the U.S. through the Medical Outreach-Eastern Division. One of her greatest achievements is coordinating the open-heart surgeries for some 400 Armenian children who travelled to the United States for these life-saving procedures. By 1991 she and her team of dedicated volunteers were successful in creating a pediatric heart department at the Michaelian Institute in Armenia. Through the Institute, Armenian doctors and nurses came to America for training, with top U.S. specialists travelling to Armenia to educate both new and seasoned medical workers in the latest surgical techniques. In 1993, they established the Nork Marash Medical Heart Center which performs surgery for both children and adults. The hospital today is on par with the U. S. medical centers, with Ms. Movsesian actively monitoring and expanding their activities.
Ms. Movsesian has brought her vision and talents to a multitude of community institutions including the New York Armenian Home in Queens, the Armenian Students’ Association, and Voice of Armenians TV Station. During her life she has travelled extensively all over the world for business and pleasure, including 38 business travels to Armenia.
The Vahan Cardashian Award is given annually to an ANCA supporter who has demonstrated longstanding dedication and active involvement in the Armenian-American community and its priorities. The award is named after Yale-educated lawyer Vahan Cardashian, who set aside his successful New York practice to dedicate himself to the establishment of the Armenian Committee for the Independence of Armenia (ACIA), predecessor organization to the Armenian National Committee, and to advocate for the plight of the Armenian Nation.
Past recipients of the ANCA Vahan Cardashian Award include Vahe Amirian of New Jersey, Martha Aramian of Rhode Island, Bedros Bandazian of Virginia, Melanie Kerneklian of Virginia, Tatul Sonentz-Papazian of Massachusetts, Ruth Thomasian of Massachusetts, Stephen Dulgarian of Massachusetts, Professor Richard Hovannisian of California, and Zohrab Tazian of Indiana.
The banquet will begin with an elegant cocktail reception and silent auction at 4 p.m., followed by dinner and awards ceremony at 6 p.m. To purchase tickets or to make a tax-deductible donation, please visit http://www.anca.org/erbanquet . For more information, please email erbanquet@anca.org or call (917) 428-1918.
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