GLENDALE–Entrepreneur, mentor and life-long ANCA activist Manas Boujikian will be honored with the ANCA-WR Legacy Award at its Annual Banquet on Saturday, November 30, at the Ray Dolby Ballroom in the heart of Hollywood.

The honor is among the organization’s highest awards and is being granted to Boujikian for more than 30 years of leadership and philanthropy.  Boujikian has and continues to advance HyeTad—from getting talented young Armenian Americans started in government, politics and journalism to educating the American media and public about the Armenian Cause to leveraging the tremendous energy of hundreds of thousands of volunteers.

Boujikian was born in Kessab, Syria, in 1932 to Hagop and Bayzar Boujikian—one of five children.  The Boujikian family migrated to the United States in 1954 where Boujikian earned his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the California State University, Los Angeles and continued with graduate courses at the University of Southern California and the University of California, Los Angeles.  Currently, Manas lives in Torrance with his wife of more than 55 years, Donalee.  Manas and Donalee are proud parents, grandparents and great-grandparents.

By education and trade, Boujikian is an engineer and farmer.  However, his true passion resides in helping sustain the growth of Armenian advocacy.  In 2009, Boujikian completed his $400,000 pledge to the ANCA Endowment Fund, marking yet another philanthropic milestone in his life-long commitment to ensuring that the collective voice and common aspirations of Armenian Americans are heard and respected in the nation’s capital. Boujikian also served several terms as an ANCA National Board Member beginning in 1983.

“Our ANCA-WR Board of Directors unanimously voted to bestow this year’s Legacy Award to such a well-deserving activist as Manas Boujikian,” said Nora Hovsepian, ANCA-WR Board of Director Co-Chair. “He has been an unwavering, staunch and deeply committed ANCA leader and supporter over a period of decades, both on the regional level as well as on the national level. We are proud of all he has accomplished and very grateful for his continued activism on behalf of the Armenian Cause, to which we are all so dedicated.”

This year, the ANCA-WR Annual Banquet will take place on Saturday, November 30 at the Ray Dolby Ballroom, the site of the Oscar’s Governors Ball. The catering for the event will be provided exclusively by world-renowned chef and personality Wolfgang Puck, who is devising a menu specifically for the ANCA-WR. The banquet will be bookended by the prestigious ANCA Grassroots Conference, which in 2011 attracted more than 600 activists from around the country. Individuals interested in attending the ANCA-Western Region Annual Banquet and Grassroots Conference are encouraged to contact the ANCA-WR office at (818) 500-1918.

The Armenian National Committee – Western Region is the largest and most influential Armenian American grassroots advocacy organization in the Western United States. Working in coordination with a network of offices, chapters, and supporters throughout the Western United States and affiliated organizations around the country, the ANCA-WR advances the concerns of the Armenian American community on a broad range of issues.

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