Meher Center Archive Collection

Dear Meher Center Family and Friends,

A loving Jai Baba from Meher Center. We want to thank all who have given so generously to the relief efforts in Asheville. The Center has sent two truck loads of much needed supplies to the Asheville area. A final truck will go this coming Tuesday. Due to the remarkable work of Inga Savage from the Asheville area, these necessities are finding their way to people in real need, some of whom have lost everything.

What is most crucial now are gift cards for food, gas and other necessities.  Please feel free to drop them by the Gateway, and we will make sure they reach those who will most benefit. If you would like to make a monetary donation, please refer to the many non-profits in the Asheville area who are helping with the cleanup.

Meher Baba said, “To love God in the most practical way is to love our fellow beings.  If we feel for others in the same way we feel for our own dear ones, we love God.” *

In His Love and Service,

Buz Connor

For Meher Center board and staff

*The Path of Love, by Meher Baba, p. 109.

Meheru Irani was born to followers of Meher Baba, and spent her whole life loving Him. In this video, she shares stories of her earliest memories of the Avatar, up to the point where Baba grants her permission to join His mandali. Filled with humor and whimsical reminiscence, Meheru takes us back to a childhood spent in the presence of God.

Video, 36:47

California, 1993

Courtesy of The AMBCSC Archives

Kitty Davy, Elizabeth Patterson and Jane Barry Haynes

Every few years, as Gateway staff, I have seen a person from the local black community walk into the Center’s front office. Some come in intentionally to say hello, others bring their families to revisit a part of their childhood, or some just come in unintentionally in other capacities by virtue of working in the area. They are always happy and polite. But there is more, there is an unmissable twinkle in their eyes. Over the years I have recognized that twinkle to be called Happy Club. Yes, they are usually adults who were once part of Happy Club – a group of children from the local Racepath community who spent many a weekend afternoon on Center soaking in Baba’s presence and love.

It all started with Bessie Graham. “Bessie was Elizabeth’s housekeeper who cooked for Baba on all three visits. On the day of the Birthday Party, Bessie brought her five-month-old grandchild, Pat, to meet Baba. Baba leaned forward and with twinkling eyes and beaming smile pinched the baby’s cheeks-and tears began rolling down Bessie’s cheeks,” says Wendy Haynes Connor. 

In the 1960s, Bessie’s three grandchildren were invited by Wendy Haynes and Elizabeth Patterson to play on Center. The week after, seven children came; after three months, there were 45. Soon, the number was well over 100. The children spent time playing in nature, learning games and songs, doing arts and crafts, and eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. After a few months, Wendy asked the group what they wanted to be called. “Happy Club!” was the echoing answer.

Wendy, who was a key part of this initial association with the Racepath community and the inception of Happy Club, with her mother Jane Barry Haynes, still finds herself at the receiving end of an unexpected flooding of memories from those times. “Two remarkable events happened in the first and second years of Happy Club. In 1966, mother and I sent pictures of the first 12 Happy Clubbers to Mani (Baba’s sister). Imagine our joy and wonder when Mani wrote back to say that Baba, (in strict seclusion at the time), held the photos in His hands looking at them with great interest. Baba then gestured that He was very pleased with the work and sent His Blessing to the children. 

“The following year a large envelope arrived from Mani dated December 1967. Inside was the children's book Meher Baba is Love written by Adah Shifrin in 1961. On the first page is Baba's signature. In a separate note to Elizabeth, Mani explained this was a gift from Baba for Happy Club. Being only 15, I didn't realize at the time just how extraordinary this was as Baba rarely signed anything in these last years of Baba's life,” adds Wendy.

Baba lovers from all over know of the Happy Club, but some are amazed to learn that Happy Club was only one part of the association of the Center with Racepath. Phoenix Renaissance Inc. was incorporated as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization on Baba’s birthday on February 25, 1994, by visionary founders Walter Witkowski and Jane Barry Haynes. In 2011 the Racepath Community Center merged with Phoenix Renaissance in their shared mission in providing essential recreational, educational, cultural, and economic opportunities that uplift the community.

Mary Leiter, who was keenly involved from the start of this connection, now sits on the board of directors of Phoenix Renaissance. Mary and her husband John were part of CVS (Community Volunteer Services, Inc) which helped these communities with health services, family services and child development. “In 1971, while we were staying here, Jane asked us if we would volunteer to run a summer camp at the Airbase. We were allowed to live on Center for eight weeks in exchange for our promise. Under Jane and Elizabeth’s direction, we picked the kids up at Racepath, Harlem, Pig pen, and on the Hill and took them to the base. That was our first involvement with Racepath and we were filled with love,” she says. I can see Mary’s love. Its palpable. It fills the room. She goes on to show me a newspaper cutting of “The House filled with love” which was called the Neighborhood House. A house donated by Baba lovers Andy and Dot Lesnik to the Racepath community. “It was Elizabeth’s brilliant idea to move this house in Cherry Grove to Racepath much like the cabins she moved to the Center. This was the original Community Center at Racepath,” she says.

Over the years the connection with Racepath has continued and grown. From 2011 to 2023, Reverend Gause, one of the Happy Club kids, was the President/ CEO of Phoenix Renaissance until his passing in 2023. A new team has now taken on his legacy of dedication and community upliftment.

A new Community and Learning Center was recently inaugurated. This Learning Center offers after school programs and summer camps through the summer. “During the summer, Meher Center helps sponsor field trips for the children and one of those trips is also for the kids to come to the Center. This is in addition to annual financial support for community members and the Community Center. We also help the community on Thanksgiving and Christmas,” says Geri Craddock, the Center’s Finance Officer. 

Peter Goodman, one of Center’s staff, helped organize a trash pickup earlier this month. “Racepath is in unincorporated Horry County which means they are not part of the city’s trash pick-up. We got the word out and many Baba lovers came out to pick up trash. We collected eight tons of trash! I hope to continue to help in any way I can so that more of their needs can be met,” says Peter.

At the new Community and Learning Center, a beautiful picture of Jane Barry Haynes adorns the wall. Her love, service and community engagement has not been forgotten. And the Center is now an indelible part of their history. Her daughter Wendy shares, “I kept their drawings and notes with scrawled, misspelled messages. "I luf Miss Jane, "Wendy be kind", and sometimes, sweetest of all, "I luvs Baba and Baba luvs me."  

Plans are underway for two new cabins to be built at Meher Center! The top two images depict a duplex style cabin, designed to accommodate families and couples. This cabin will be between Laurel Oak Lodge and the Library. Due to a consistent stream of requests for the Hermitage cabin, the board plans to build a second cabin which will offer a similarly private and solitary retreat option for guests. It will be placed along the same road as the existing Hermitage. Both new cabins will be air-conditioned in the summer months.

I wanted to share a short passage from the diary my wife Wendy and I kept in the 1980s and 90s. This conversation took place with Kitty Davy in January of 1987.

We asked Kitty what she says to someone who comes to her with a problem or a question on how to follow Baba, and they just don’t see or understand what Baba wants for them - even though it may be clear to her (Kitty).  She said, “Well, they have to be patient, and it will come to them; and that they must decide for themselves they can ask as many people as they like, but it must come from inside of them.  Mani is often asked how to love and follow Him now – now that we don’t have Him to tell us what to do.  She always says ‘yes, well we have His books. So much is contained in them.’  

“People must also learn to listen to others and to Baba. So few people really know how to listen. I can count on one hand the people who really know how to listen. Though Baba says we can find God through silence, that doesn’t mean just because we don’t talk our minds won’t be jumping to 101 things. On the contrary, it means not bothering with anything else, getting everything else out of the way.

“Look how Elizabeth was – always thinking before she spoke, and she never wasted a word. Baba would say, ‘Oh, what about such and such a thing?’ Norina would right away say, ‘Oh yes, Baba. We can do this or that.’ But Elizabeth would say, ‘Well, Baba, I’ll have to think about that for a while, so I can visualize what You mean.’ So that is how Elizabeth was; always listening very carefully and speaking only when she had something to say. But there’s room for both types of personalities, the spontaneous and the impulsive, and the thoughtful and careful.”