CONFERENCE CENTER DONATIONS GROW

Before lunch on Saturday, Rose Najarian Kedeshian, a member of the board overseeing the new Diocesan Ararat Youth and Conference Center, challenged the delegates to support the effort to pay off the site's purchase. The site had a price tag of $1.2 million, but $850,000 had already been raised.

"We just want to close this gap," said Najarian Kedeshian, who announced two anonymous donations from St. Leon Church of Fair Lawn for $10,000 and asked delegates to give $1,000 for each child and grandchild who have attended programs that will now be held at the Ararat Center.

As delegate after delegate rose to the microphone to voice their support, more than $100,000 was raised. Many other delegates also made pledges in private throughout the day. The delegates were urged to continue the efforts in their home parishes.

"The point is not the money," said Fr. Haigazoun Najarian, pastor from Wynnewood, PA, and the one who got the original idea for buying the site rolling during the 2000 Assembly. "When we were walking on the grounds of the site this week, it was so beautiful. The feeling was so good, to feel the earth as if the earth was belonging to us. This was ours. For people who have not always had a home, this was ours now. It's open to all the Armenian Community, to bring them together as a family."