From Frank V. Zerunyan, J.D. LL.D. (hc)

Four-term Mayor and Council Member, City of Rolling Hills Estates

WELCOME TO this digital page of the Pepper Tree Foundation. The Pepper Tree Foundation has been a tremendous vehicle for our City of Rolling Hills Estates to care for its equestrian character, trails, parks, public art, monuments, and, most importantly, to demonstrate our humanity to the rest of cities and the world. We hope every city remains stewards of its environment and celebrates its residents past and present through various expressions of tolerance and compassion. Dedicated art is the perfect recognition to honor historical events and people.

On November 12, 2022, the City Council dedicated a bronze plaque depicting a woman carrying a child. The bronze plaque is installed on a Palos Verdes rock, greeting every resident visiting our City Hall, Council Chambers, and City Hall gardens, full of memorial plaques and dedicated monuments. This bronze plaque is entitled “America, Thank You."

"America, Thank You" will remain as an eternal recognition of the Armenian Genocide and as a story of hope, survival, resilience, and the kindness of New Yorkers, Californians, and the American people who saved the orphans of this Genocide miles away from American soil. The story of this violent first Genocide of the 20th century and the Near East Relief Foundation that you are about to read on this page is a story of human proportions. Man's inhumanity to man is not just an Armenian issue but a human rights issue for all humanity. Sadly, we continue to experience dehumanization, displacement, war, and Genocide in our century. 

During the dedication ceremony, I said, "I chose for depiction the image of that woman who could have been my great-grandmother marching into the desert with the youngest of my grand aunts on her back. The Near East Relief Foundation in New York created the poster of this woman and child for its fund-raising efforts across the United States. We used this poster as inspiration for our monument. The original of this poster now resides in the Library of Congress.” I continued, "I want everyone and future generations to see this rock as a symbol of survival and human kindness. And also, our beloved city's leadership on a historical event of human proportions and kindness. No better place than a local city hall where neighbors gather with love and compassion."  

This page recounts this American history and the realization of this monument through videos and pictures. We hope you will visit and appreciate all our memorials dedicated to our past, the 9/11 memorial, Veterans' Memorial, former public servants, and other monuments that will follow them, honoring special events and people. We also hope that you will generously donate to the Pepper Tree Foundation to preserve our quality of life, open spaces, parks, and cherished monuments.

Consider donating to the Pepper Tree Foundation to support the "America, Thank You" monument and other park projects by the Pepper Tree Foundation.

City of Rolling Hills Estates/Pepper Tree Foundation
c/o Rosa Pinuelas, Community Services Supervisor
4045 Palos Verdes Drive North
Rolling Hills Estates, CA 90274

Checks payable to: Pepper Tree Foundation

The first step to producing the sculpture part of the monument was to hand-sculpt the relief in special, wet sculpting clay. The relief was composed using the “additive” technique of adding, shaping, and forming material, as opposed to the “subtractive” method of chiseling away stone or carving into wood. The monument’s particular form of sculpture is known as “high relief” because it is substantially more extruded from the background than the other types of three-dimensional reliefs, such as the “bas-relief.”

The artist completed the sculpture over the course of a few months, dedicating countless hours to meticulously shape and form the clay and slowly bringing the vision of the monument to life. Based on an iconic American poster produced in 1917 by the Near East Relief, which depicts an Armenian mother and child fleeing persecution during the Armenian Genocide, the sculpture captures the countenance and gestures of mother experiencing intense trauma. In addition to capturing the woman’s body language in bronze, the artist also included distinctive, cultural elements unique to ethnic Armenians, such as the fabric weaves in the woman’s garment and the chain of coins decorating her headdress. 

The American poster produced in 1917 by the Near East Relief and titled “Lest They Perish” inspired the design for the sculpture. During the First World War, the poster promoted the nationwide campaign to raise money to provide humanitarian aid and financial relief to the orphans of the Armenian Genocide. The humanitarian campaign poster is artist W.B. King’s rendering of an iconic photograph of a mother carrying her child on her back during the forced deportations and death marches during the Armenian Genocide.

Archeologists have found stone and ivory sculptures across the globe that may be tens of thousands of years old. These sculptures were produced one unit at a time using the subtractive, carving method of sculpting. This bronze monument was produced using the additive method of metal casting. Metal casting is the oldest form of additive production known to humankind, and bronze casting is estimated to be a 5,000-year-old tradition, defining the Bronze Age in human history. 

The monument’s sculpture was casted in bronze at a local art foundry in Los Angeles. The casting method used is known as lost-wax casting, which is the primary method of producing three-dimensional castings. Even today, the ancient lost-wax casting technique remains the primary method for manufacturing both art and high-precision productions including precious metal jewelry such as gold and silver. 

The artist’s clay sculpture was used to create a silicone mold. This mold served as an empty cavity to first cast a master copy made of industrial-grade wax. Next, the wax master copy was used to create a second mold made of silica. This second mold served as the empty cavity into which the final copy was casted in bronze . The bronze alloy–comprised mainly of copper–was melted and poured at temperatures exceeding 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit. The strength of the bronze of both the sculpture and the plaque on which it’s adhered also symbolizes the enduring humanitarianism of the people of the United States, the resilience of the Armenian people, and the timeless relationship and shared values between the two peoples.

The bronze plaque–to which the “Mother and Child” sculpture is joined–was produced through the ancient sand-casting method. Each micro-detail of the plaque was refined and polished by skilled craftspeople. The plaque is casted in premium-quality bronze melted and poured at temperatures exceeding 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit.

David George Gevorkyan designed the elements and arrangement of the bronze monument plaque using industry-leading vector design software. Next, the artist’s hand-drawn rendering of the sculpture was joined to the digital rendering of the plaque. The final dimensions of both the plaque and the “Mother and Child” sculpture were determined in relation to the dimensions of the Palo Verde rock on which the monument would be joined.

The plaque is adorned by a border containing the Armenian cultural weave pattern and a rustic, pebbled, sand texture for the background. This weave design appears in prehistoric Armenian artifacts and antique Armenian rugs and is commonly used in Armenian architecture indigenous to the Armenian Highlands. Historically, the weave pattern symbolizes continuity and eternity. The background texture symbolizes the rough, uncomfortable, and difficult road hundreds of thousands of people were forced to walk on death marches through the harsh Syrian desert.

Both the “Mother and Child” relief sculpture and the plaque of the “America, Thank You!” monument, are professionally finished with a patina achieved in a special, controlled environment.

Like the Statue of Liberty in New York City, the memorial will continue oxidizing naturally, and the patina will change color to a darker brown and, eventually, a marbled green color. Specialists symbolically consider bronze a living alloy because it protects itself from the environment through oxidation. Bronze, like silver, does not rust or corrode, but changes color based on the elements to which it is exposed, resulting in a patina.

Renowned Armenian painter and sculptor Tigran Hovumyan sculpted the “Mother and Child” relief of Rolling Hills Estates’ “America, Thank You” monument.

Master Artist Tigran Hovumyan

National Artist of Armenia and Movses Khorenatsi Medal Recipient

Tigran Hovumyan is a nationally celebrated artist whose work is prominently displayed in renowned museums and galleries. Born in Yerevan, Armenia in 1969, he is a graduate of Hakob Kojoyan School of Art in Yerevan and earned a Diploma of Excellence from the State College of Fine Arts. In 1995, he graduated from Yerevan Academy of Fine Arts summa cum laude.

Hovumyan has been an active member of the Artist Union of Armenia since 1996 and in 1998 was inducted into the UNCESCO International Federation of Artists. In 2013, he was named Professor and Chair of the drawing, painting, and sculpture faculty at the National University of Architecture in Yerevan, Armenia.

Tigran Hovumyan has held exhibitions in cities considered to be global cultural centers including Beijing, Los Angeles, Moscow, New York, Paris, Stockholm, Tokyo, and Yerevan. He has been commissioned by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and his work was exhibited at the 50th anniversary exhibition of the United Nations.

Over time, Tigran Hovumyan has been commissioned to produce works of national importance to the Republic of Armenia. In 2002, the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Armenia commissioned Hovumyan to sculpt the bust of deceased Prime Minister Vazgen Sarkisyan for the Vazgen Sargyan Military Institute. In 2007, the same Ministry of Defense recommissioned Hovumyan to sculpt another memorial bust of Prime Minister Sarkisyan, now for the Vazgen Sarkisyan Avenue monument.

In 2009, he composed the interior panoramas of the State Museum of Armenian History. The project consisted of two historical panoramas each measuring 52 feet long by four feet wide, or 416 square feet of total space. In 2021, the newly constructed Saint Sarkis Armenian Apostolic Church contracted Tigran Hovumyan to produce the five paintings of the religious icons inside the church in San Diego, California. The compositions include the central altar icon of the Holy Mother and Child Jesus, the Baptism of Christ, and the Holy Martyrs memorial. 

For significant contributions to the development of Armenian fine arts, Tigran Hovumyan was awarded the Gold Medal of Armenia’s Ministry of Culture in 2016. In 2017, the President of the Republic of Armenia bestowed Tigran Hovumyan the highest culture and art award granted in Armenia, the Medal of Movses Khorenatsi.

 As part of his preparation and inspiration, Hovumyan made a pilgrimage to the world’s oldest cathedral, the Holy Etchmiadzin in Armenia. During his pilgrimage, he embarked on a journey of artistic and spiritual exploration. Immersing himself in historical Armenian church art and iconography, he met and collaborated with prominent and influential scholars at the Holy See.

Tigran currently resides in Los Angeles, California with his wife Ruzanna and two children Areg and Gayane and continues his work producing and composing fine art for public spaces, cultural and religious institutions, and nonprofit organizations.

Established in 1980, Koko’s Foundry, Inc. produces various community space and art projects for local government and nonprofit organizations. The foundry manufactures historic preservation plaques, monuments, architectural statues, lighting fixtures, furniture, and various other productions of bronze, brass, and aluminum.

The founder of the company Grigor Gevorkyan is a metallurgist and lifelong foundryman. A fourth generation foundryman, he comes from a lineage of foundrymen that spans four countries, including the Ottoman Empire (Adana), Syria (Damascus), Armenia (Yerevan), and finally the United States (Los Angeles). He is the grandson of Armenian Genocide survivors who fled their homes in Besni, a town in the Adana region of Western Armenia, which is modern-day Turkey.

Koko’s Foundry, Inc. has worked on various community space projects across the County of Los Angeles including the Veterans Memorial at Plummer Park in West Hollywood, the community time capsule at the Crescenta Commons in La Crescenta, Santa Clarita Valley Senior Center Meditation Garden, Santa Ana Police Department, statues for a Napa Valley vineyard, numerous church crosses, Charlie Chaplin’s commemoration plaque on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, several entertainment industry accolades and awards, and many other public and non-profit projects.

The 19th and early 20th century saw the demise of a number of totalitarian regimes and empires. One of these was the Ottoman Empire, which throughout its history was ruled by an autocratic sultan, who mistreated his subjects, which among others, included the Armenians. The Armenians of the Ottoman Empire bitterly spoke out against the persecution and mistreatment that they were subjected to throughout the centuries of Turkish misrule. In 1878, a number of European states known as the “Great Powers,” at the conclusion of the Congress of Berlin, which commenced after the end of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, included an article, which stated that Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II, in order to relieve the plight of the Armenian people, was obliged to carry out reforms in the Armenian populated provinces of the Ottoman Empire. These reforms were meant to end the oppression of Armenians by their Muslim neighbors, who were often instigated to do so by the orders of the sultan. However, Sultan Abdul Hamid II not only neglected to carry out these reforms, but between 1894 and 1896 instigated a new wave of unprecedented massacres, which claimed the lives of anywhere between 150,000 to 300,000 Armenians.

In 1908, Sultan Abdul Hamid II was overthrown by a political movement that called itself “the Young Turks.” These Turkish political leaders who had overthrown the sultan claimed to be liberals and the Armenians hoped that the new government would once and for all bring the much-needed reforms that would end the discriminatory policies that were part and parcel of the political system of the Ottoman Empire. However, the Young Turk government pursued policies that were a far cry from the supposedly liberal course that they had outlined in their political program. In 1915, under the cover of the ongoing First World War, the Young Turks led by its ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) began the Armenian Genocide, which was a pre-planned attempt at the systematic destruction of the Armenian people throughout the Ottoman Empire. Around 1.5 million Armenians perished as a result of mass killings, starvation and disease during the inhumane death marches that forcibly removed Armenians from their homeland to the inhospitable Syrian desert.

The leading human rights activists of the period were appalled by the Turkish government’s policies of mass extermination. Rafael Lemkin, an outstanding lawyer of international law and a leading champion of human rights would coin the term “genocide,” defining it as the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group. Lemkin specifically cited the Armenian Genocide as the prime example that motivated him to not only come up with the term “genocide,” but more importantly, in 1948 to become one of the framers of the United Nations’ Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, an international treaty that criminalized genocide and obligated state parties to pursue the enforcement of its prohibition. 

 Researched and written by Gevork Nazaryan

Henry Morgenthau Sr., who from 1913 to 1917, served as the United States’ ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, was outraged by the mass extermination of the Armenian people at the hands of the Turkish government and what he called “a murder of a nation.” In 1915, Ambassador Morgenthau informed the U.S. government of the ongoing Armenian Genocide and urged President Woodrow Wilson to set up a humanitarian relief organization that would aid the survivors of the extermination campaign. President Wilson heeded his call and in 1915 set up the American Committee on Armenian Atrocities, which later was renamed as the American Committee for Relief in the Near East (ACRNE) – and in 1919, after receiving a congressional charter – the Near East Relief (NER). From 1915 to 1930, in response to the Armenian Genocide, the Near East Relief organized the world's first large-scale, modern humanitarian assistance program. Former American missionary and educator James Levi Barton and philanthropist Cleveland Hoadley Dodge led a group of prominent New Yorkers in forming the nucleus of what became the American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief. Throughout these years, the Near East Relief saved the lives of more than a million people, including 132,000 orphans who were cared for and educated in various orphanages throughout the Near East. These orphans included not only Armenians, but also Greeks, Assyrians and other nationalities who also fell victim to the extermination policies of the Turkish government during and after World War I.

Throughout these years the NER operated chapters in all the lower 48 states and collected donations that in today’s value amounts to a sum of approximately $3 billion. This was made possible due to an unprecedented grassroots campaign that spanned across the United States. The campaign included moving imagery and passionate celebrities who inspired millions of Americans to donate food, clothing and other necessities to the Near East Relief. Thousands of Americans volunteered to serve the NER throughout the Near East, as well as the U.S. This drive gave rise to what is known as citizen philanthropy, which is still used today by a majority of charitable American and international organizations around the world.

In 1923, President Calvin Coolidge, on behalf of the NER, established the tradition of the "Golden Rule Sunday," which encouraged people on every first Sunday of December to eat something simple and offer the money they saved as a donation to the orphans of the Armenian Genocide. The Sunday of the Golden Rule was celebrated not only in the United States, but also in many parts of Europe and Australia.

The Near East Relief built hundreds of orphanages, vocational schools, and food distribution centers throughout the Near East. Hundreds of Americans from all walks of life volunteered and served as relief workers throughout these American overseas institutions that cared for tens of thousands of orphans and other survivors of the Armenian Genocide.

In 1930, Near East Relief was renamed the Near East Foundation (NEF), marking the organization’s transition from a relief organization to long-term social and economic development. During these years the NEF expanded its geographical reach to include different parts of the Middle East and Africa and today operates from its Syracuse headquarters in New York.

The legacy of the Near East Relief cannot be underestimated. It was the first major American international humanitarian relief effort that galvanized millions of Americans to assist its noble cause in saving a whole generation of the Armenian Genocide survivors. As Rolling Hills Estates Councilmember Frank V. Zerunyan, who along with his City Council colleagues was instrumental in erecting on city hall grounds the “America, Thank You!” Armenian Genocide Memorial dedicated to the legacy of Amb. Henry Morgenthau Sr. and the remarkable work of the Near East Relief, noted: “Let us commit to truth and justice, to human dignity and rights, until we eradicate all genocides and hate with the continued but painful recognition of the past.”

 Researched and written by Gevork Nazaryan