Five Teens, One Calendar: Tomsak Is Featured in TorontoHye
Two pages. Five faces. One headline: "One community, one calendar: How five Canadian Armenian teens built Tomsak."
The October 2026 issue of TorontoHye, the bilingual Armenian and English monthly that has been the voice of Toronto Armenians since 2005, tells the story of Tomsak.ca across pages 22 and 23 of its Community section. It is the newspaper we grew up seeing stacked at church and at school. This month, we are in it.
If there is one thing we hope readers take from the article, it is this: you do not have to wait until you are older, or have a budget, or know the right people. You can start with a problem you care about and a laptop. Everything else can be learned.
It started with a party nobody could find
The article opens with a simple story. Ernest, then fifteen, heard about an Armenian teen night in Toronto and could not find out who was organizing it, where it was, or when it started. By the time he pieced it together, the party was over.
"The information existed; it was just scattered across a dozen places that do not talk to each other," he told TorontoHye.
Instead of shrugging it off, he called his friends. That conversation became Tomsak.ca: one free calendar for Armenian events across Canada, in English, French and Armenian.
Meet the team
Ernest Aghababyan leads the product, the site and search. Nina Kocharyan designs everything you see, and she was just 13 when we started. Aratta Gragossian builds our partnerships. Artaz Gragossian tests every page and hunts down every bug. Angelina Tumanyan runs our social media and content.
We are students at A.R.S. Armenian Private School and graduates of St. Sahag St. Mesrob Armenian Saturday School. We grew up in Homenetmen scouting, the band, Badanegan, AGBU Innovation Studios, Camp Ararat and Barev Centre volunteering. TorontoHye described us building Tomsak "from kitchen tables and school libraries," and that is exactly right.
"We make sure to work together because we know that our roles are all equally important," Angelina told the paper, "and that Tomsak would not work properly if one of us failed at something."
What five students have built
Here is what Tomsak looks like today, built entirely by teenagers between homework and exams:
A trilingual events calendar in English, French and Armenian, covering Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Armenian communities across Canada.
A weekly newsletter that brings upcoming events to the inboxes of people who are not on social media.
More than 20 blog posts on Armenian festivals, traditions, organizations and city guides.
16 partner organizations and 2 sponsors, from churches and schools to an embassy.
A two page feature in TorontoHye.
Nina explained the design thinking to TorontoHye: modern enough for a teenager arriving from TikTok, simple enough for a grandparent checking a church service. That is why the language buttons sit right on the homepage.
The partners who believed in us
TorontoHye wrote that Tomsak's "steady professionalism" earned partnerships with major institutions across Canada. We could not be prouder of the organizations that said yes to five students:
Hamazkayin Canada's Levon Shant Armenological Course
Meronq
Pomegranate Film Festival
And a special thank you to our sponsors, VLUME, the largest Armenian digital library, and Toronto Custom Lights, an Armenian owned business serving the GTA since 2010. Their support helps keep Tomsak free for everyone. You can meet all of them on our partners page.
We have also had the honour of meeting MP Michael Coteau at Holy Trinity Armenian Church, and of being invited to the Hayastan Foundation Toronto annual dinner.
Three languages, one community
TorontoHye called trilingual access "a central pillar" of Tomsak. Every listing and every post is checked by hand, because in Montreal many readers only ever see the French version.
What young people want organizations to know
Aratta gave TorontoHye some of the most useful advice in the whole article. Youth engagement is not about a brighter poster. "In reality, most of us don't really notice posters on a wall or ads in a newspaper," she said. What reaches young people is content that feels genuine, casual and made by people who understand them.
Angelina added that trust is built slowly. "Once they saw that we were supporting their ideas and events instead of replacing them, they gained more trust in us," she said.
Speaking the language of young people works. When Barev Centre hosted its "Harc Ka?" trivia night, we made a short, funny video about it for Instagram and TikTok. On just one platform it reached more than 60,000 views. No big budget, just content that sounds like us.
Dream big
We are preparing to register Tomsak as an official non profit, so we can apply for youth grants. Then come mobile apps. And one day, ticketing.
We are also looking for younger students to join us and carry Tomsak forward. "If we can find two or three people more like her, determined and talented, then Tomsak does not depend on the five of us at all," Ernest said about Nina.
TorontoHye closed its story by saying that youth leadership in the diaspora "is already here." To every young Armenian reading this: it is. Start with the thing that frustrates you. Ask for help. Keep going.
Read the article and join us
Pick up the October 2026 issue of TorontoHye at Armenian churches, schools and community centres across the GTA, or read it online on Issuu.
Want to help? Submit your event, join our newsletter, or become a partner.
Thank you, TorontoHye. We grew up reading you. It means the world to be in your pages.
FAQ
Which TorontoHye issue features Tomsak?
Tomsak is featured in the October 2026 issue of TorontoHye, volume 21, number 10, on pages 22 and 23 of the Community section, under the headline "One community, one calendar: How five Canadian Armenian teens built Tomsak."
Where can I read the article?
The full issue is online on Issuu at issuu.com/torontohye/docs/torontohye_230, and print copies are available at Armenian centres, churches and schools across the Greater Toronto Area.
What is TorontoHye?
TorontoHye (Թորոնթոհայ) is a monthly bilingual Armenian and English newspaper serving Toronto's Armenian community since 2005, with about 3,000 copies a month.
What is Tomsak.ca?
Tomsak.ca is a free calendar of Armenian community events across Canada in English, French and Armenian, built and run by five Armenian Canadian teenagers from Toronto.
Who is on the Tomsak team?
Ernest Aghababyan, Aratta Gragossian, Artaz Gragossian, Nina Kocharyan and Angelina Tumanyan.
Who are Tomsak's partners and sponsors?
Tomsak works with 16 partner organizations, including the Diocese of the Armenian Church of Canada, the Embassy of Armenia to Canada, Holy Trinity Armenian Church and the Zoryan Institute. Its sponsors are VLUME and Toronto Custom Lights.
How can I list an Armenian event on Tomsak?
Fill in the free form at tomsak.ca/event-submission.
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