ASO Volunteers for Valley Public Television Telethon

Sevag Tateosian
Editor

On Thursday, March 13, members of the Armenian Students Organization (ASO) along with advisor Barlow Der Mugrdechian teamed up with K.V.P.T. (Valley Public Television) in an effort to raise pledge funds for the operation of the station. K.V.P.T. is the public television station serving the San Joaquin Valley.

This was the first time that the ASO helped the station in raising pledges on a live telethon. However, the station is a very strong supporter of Armenian issues and has shown many videos on Armenian oriented topics. Furthermore it has, on many occasions, had several Armenian organizations throughout the community help them with raising funds for their station.

Two films were shown from 8:00-11:00 pm. The first was The Armenian-Americans and the other was Armenia: Story of Survival, both produced, directed, and written by Andrew Goldberg for WLIW 21 Public Television of New York. There were several pledge breaks during and in-between the two movies, where the ASO students that were manning the phone lines, could be seen. Peter Nazaretian of Fresno was the host for the evening.

It was a night that those who took part in will remember for a long time. The actual studio itself was exciting. As the ASO members entered the studio, all of them had a smile on their face. This was because the studio looked exactly like one from the backstage of a major motion picture. This made the students feel like movie stars for the night.

Overall, the event was a great success. The ASO surpassed the pledge-goal that was set for the evening. In fact, that night was one of the most successful pledge-nights for the station. Most importantly the ASO members had a wonderful time with each other and a powerful bond was formed by those who took part. As the night ended, most of the students asked, “When can we come back?”