AYF-ers, Friends, Family,
On behalf of the New Jersey “Arsen” Steering Committee, we would like to thank everyone for attending, participating, and supporting the 83rd annual Armenian Youth Federation (AYF-YOARF) Senior Olympic games. The weekend was once again a huge success thanks to everyone involved. Anyone who has helped run an AYF Senior Olympics knows what a huge undertaking it is. Our committees began meeting over a year in advance of the event and continued planning and organizing right up to and throughout the weekend. Thanks to the hard work of numerous New Jersey AYF and AYF alumni individuals, we were able to reach and exceed our goals.
The 2016 AYF Olympics were hosted by the N.J. ‘Arsen’ chapter
As a Steering Committee, we wanted to stick to the traditions that make AYF Senior Olympics the most anticipated and beloved event on the Armenian calendar. A key part of that was bringing as many of us together as possible. Many of the decisions made were based on this idea, including the proximity of the hotels to the athletic venues, the inclusion of all the dances with the HyePass, and hosting all of the dances in the main hotel. All of these decisions and planning would be futile, however, without the willingness of the greater AYF community to participate. Thanks to you, the weekend was a perfect combination of AYF-ers past, present, and future coming together.
Tennis, golf, swimming, and alumni golf were all well attended and enjoyed. Friday night’s Alumni Dance saw AYF-ers past and present on the dance floor and at the dinner table. The AYF dance later in the night allowed for the youth enjoy themselves after hours. The next day, the AYF fraternal spirit was on display during the not-for-points fun day of Olympic softball. Saturday night’s dance will not soon be forgotten. The dance floor was packed for hours into the night. Sunday at the track was truly a special day for all in attendance. The competition was fierce, but once again, the fraternal spirit emerged, especially during the opening ceremonies. Each chapter in attendance honored an alumni member of their community, followed by memorable speeches from dignitaries including real-life Armenian Olympic athlete Houry Gebeshian. Sunday night saw the Olympic All-Stars take the stage between trophy ceremonies and awards. As it’s always sad to see an AYF event come to an end, the Monday picnic was so well attended that we ran out of food! We are so glad that each of these great individual events came together to form a classic AYF Senior Olympics weekend.
Thank you again to all of those who attended and especially to those who helped plan the weekend. This was truly a team effort and we are grateful to all involved. Good luck to the Racine “Armen Garo” chapter and we will see you next year in Downtown Milwaukee!
Sincerely,
Your 83rd Annual AYF-YOARF Olympic Steering Committee
Mark Alashaian
Kyle Dinkjian
Taline Chalian
Yervant Kachichian
Raffi Massoyan
Mike Mirakian
Shant Tashjian
Source: Armenian Weekly
Link: 2016 AYF Olympics: A Message From the Steering Committee