The Armenian Bone Marrow Donor Registry (ABMDR) celebrated its 15th anniversary at its annual March for Life Gala at the Glendale Hilton (California) on August 10.

More than 400 supporters, reflecting a cross section of the Los Angeles Armenian community and including church and community leaders, elected officials, and representatives of various health organizations, attended the jubilant event

The Gala was made possible by the major sponsorship of Glendale Adventist Medical Center.

The evening’s main program began   with opening remarks delivered by ABMDR Board member and Mistress of Ceremonies TaleenKhatchadurian.

The event’s invocation was performed by Archbishop HovnanDerderian, who subsequently was presented with the 2014 ABMDR Humanitarian Achievement Award, in recognition of his key role in the Western Diocese’s longtime support of the Registry.

As he accepted the award, Archbishop Derderian said, “The Armenian Bone Marrow Donor Registry has been and continues to be a blessing in the life of our community, where we all see the dire need for leadership, sacrifice, and the sharing of divine gifts among people. The ABMDR is a divine mission. Those who become shareholders in this mission are those who become the holy hand of God.”

TaleenKhatchadurian next introduced ABMDR founding members Mark Geragos, Esq., Dr. Frieda Jordan, Dr. Bella Kocharian, and Dr. SevakAvagyan.

“This organization has thousands of shining facets, not the least of which are its more than 26,000 registered potential donors and 20 facilitated transplants,” Dr. Jordan said as she took the podium.

Dr. Bella Kocharian, ABMDR’s first-ever registered donor, said, “As a physician, I have always been deeply aware of the need for a donor registry dedicated to helping save Armenian lives. And as an Armenian, I remain absolutely in awe of our Registry, considering not only its extraordinary achievements in the past 15 years, but the fact that it has quickly become a genuinely pan-Armenian institution.”

Also delivering remarks was ABMDR Executive Director Dr. SevakAvagyan, who shared with the audience some of the most recent milestones achieved by the Registry’s lab in Yerevan, in terms of diagnostics, research, cord-blood banking, and pioneering auto-transplantation procedures.

The ABMDR Humanitarian Achievement Award was also conferred on Archbishop MousheghMardirossian and Armenian Consul General Dr. Sergey Sarkisov. Accepting the award on behalf of the latter was EghiaMansuryan of the Consulate.

The ABMDR Volunteer of the Year Award was presented to Marilyn Bazarian, Dee Chorlian, and HratchPostik; the Team of the Year Award was presented to the USC Armenian Graduate Students’ Association; and the ABMDR Special Pride Award was conferred on HratchLukassian and AshotManukian.

Established in 1999, ABMDR, a nonprofit organization, helps Armenians and non-Armenians worldwide survive life-threatening blood-related illnesses by recruiting and matching donors to those requiring bone marrow stem cell transplants. To date, the registry has recruited over 26,000 donors in 20 countries across four continents, identified 2,481 patients, and facilitated 20 bone marrow transplants. For more information, call (323) 663-3609 or visit abmdr.am.

 

 Photo: ABMDR Board of Directors