CREW PUTS LAST TOUCHES ON YOUTH CLUB.

Byline: Lee Condon Daily News Staff Writer

Aram Mardirosian says it's gotten much harder to keep young people in the city on the right track since he immigrated from Iraq and settled in Glendale more than 20 years ago.

``Day by day, there's more graffiti, gangs and fighting,'' Mardirosian said. ``When I came to Glendale in 1974 there were no gangs, no violence.''

Mardirosian, 48, and a group of friends were thinking of ways to keep young Armenian youths off the streets when they formed a nonprofit group in 1991 to provide a place for young people in Glendale to gather.

It's modeled, Mardirosian said, after the youth clubs that he and the other organizers were familiar with in Baghdad.

``It's just like what we used to have back home,'' said Bedros ``Peter'' Boghossian, 46, who was in a youth club with Mardirosian when they were boys.

``We used to play basketball 30 years ago,'' Mardirosian said.

Now the two men are founding members of the board of directors of the Armenian Youth Association of Southern California, which will dedicate its new family center with a grand-opening celebration at 7 p.m. Saturday.

Over the last five years, the association's 400 members have been raising funds to buy a new site for youths to meet for various cultural, educational and recreational activities. Previously the club was in a smaller space in a shopping center.

On Friday, Mardirosian, 48, and a small group of workers were pasting up wallpaper in the entry hall, trying to get the center finished in time for the big party.

Mardirosian is a local contractor. He has taken on the task of completely renovating the interior of the 4,000-square-foot building at 1811 S. Glendale Ave., which the association recently bought for $420,000. He said he and his workers have done the job free of charge.

Built in 1965 - the site once housed the United Insurance Co. of America - the space has been given a new life by Mardirosian, who took out the office cubicles and created a large main hall, complete with a dance floor, a chandelier and decorative trim on the walls and ceilings.

Besides the youth association, there are two other major Armenian youth clubs in Glendale, the Armenian Youth Federation and the Homenetmen Armenian Athletic and Scouting Union.

Alex Sardar, a spokesman for the Glendale Chapter of the Armenian National Committee, said organized youth clubs are a tradition in the Armenian community, and that these days, parents are looking toward them more than ever for help.

``There's a general consensus that something needs to be done. The clubs provide a place for kids to go to and stay out of gangs,'' Sardar said.

Children are admitted to the club free, but their parents are charged $50 a year to join. About 120 youths participate in the clubs' programs, which include language and Armenian history classes, dancing lessons, music lessons and camping trips.

``We don't want the children to forget our traditions and culture,'' Boghossian said.

The new family center was organized mostly by Armenians who immigrated from Iraq, Mardirosian said. However, he said everyone in Glendale is welcome to be a part of the new center.

``It's open for all the kids,'' he said.

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Photo

PHOTO Vrej Krikorian, left, Aram Mardirosian and Tony Bedro ssian work on the club.

Bob Halvorsen/Daily News