Reunion to recall the woman who gave Wilmington children ‘a place to go and feel like somebody.’

More than 45 years after she left the close-knit community of east Wilmington, Mary Mahar is remembered by only a few of its residents. They recall a woman who delighted in giving away her roses and gladioluses.

“We used to go by and she used to give us roses to take to our teacher,” said 66-year-old Rose Saavedra. “She had such a beautiful garden.”

But Mary Mahar gave away more than flowers.

She gave away her home. And as a result, she has enriched the lives of people who never knew her.

In the nearly five decades since Mrs. Mahar bequeathed her two-story house to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles for use as a community center, Mahar House has served countless Wilmington residents.

Operated by the Catholic Youth Organization and funded in part by United Way, Mahar House has been a haven for young people, who went--and still go--there for recreation, guidance and to get off the streets. Many Wilmington community leaders of today were Mahar House members years ago.

“I grew up at the Mahar,” said John Mendez, former director of the Wilmington Teen Center, founded in 1966 in the wake of the Watts riots. “The best part of it for me was that they had a number of programs that kept us busy. We had a place to go. We felt like it was home.”

Mendez, who is still very active in civic affairs, said his experiences at Mahar House have stayed with him, shaping the way he approaches his life and his work.

“I ran a lot of programs at the teen center,” he said, “and all the time I didn’t know that what I was really doing was running programs that were at the Mahar.”

Connie Calderon, who succeeded Mendez as the teen center director, echoed his feelings. She said she tries to give today’s young people what Mahar House gave to her: “a place to go and feel like somebody.”

This year, in honor of the 45th anniversary of the founding of Mahar House, a group of former members are planning a reunion of those who spent their childhood days at what they call “the Mahar.”

The reunion effort is headed by Lola Castagnola, who 45 years ago was president of the Mahar Gs, a girls club that met at Mahar House. “There isn’t a person in Wilmington that doesn’t have a memory of that place,” she said.

Castagnola said she hopes the reunion, a dinner-dance planned for Aug. 25 at Carson Community Center in Carson, will be more than a social occasion. (Tickets for the event are $25 a person. Reservations can be made by calling Mahar House at 834-7265.) She would like to use it as a springboard to encourage former Mahar members--some of whom have become successful in business--to form a fund-raising group for Mahar House.

The group, which Castagnola has tentatively named “Friends of the Mahar,” would help raise money for the center to purchase a bungalow so that it can expand its operations. Mahar’s house director, Abelardo de la Pena, estimates the bungalow will cost $50,000. So far, he and his staff have raised less than $7,000.

De la Pena notes that today’s Mahar House is not the Mahar House its members remember with nostalgia. Some who have left Wilmington may be surprised at what they find.

The original two-story home is no longer standing. The victim of termites, it was demolished in 1964, and replaced by a one-story, three-room building.

Secondly, he said, times are different now.

“In those days, in this house they held dances. The only thing (parents) had to worry about was smoking tobacco, cigarettes. In those days, there was no marijuana, no cocaine, nothing like that. Now, I don’t have any dances here.”

Nowadays, De la Pena said, Mahar House deals with pressing community problems. The center offers citizenship classes, hot lunches for senior citizens and nutrition programs, in addition to trying to keep young people out of gangs and off drugs.

“It’s tough times,” said Castagnola. “He’s got all these kids and he’s trying to stop the gangs. . . . I don’t know if this generation has the (respectful) attitude for the place that we did.”

Whether they do or not, Castagnola, Calderon, Mendez and others said they intend to gather this summer to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the founding of Mahar House, and to honor the legacy of Mary Mahar.

“The Mahar has had a great impact,” Mendez said. “A lot of people that are still working together in the community are former Mahar people. That gives credit to the people who are there, and a big thank you to Mrs. Mahar for starting that facility. Because without it, we would have had nothing.”