Over 100 years ago, the Community Church of Durham recognized the need for spiritual presence within the university campus, and started the organization that would become The Waysmeet Center/United Campus Ministry to UNH. Since its creation, the organization has taken many names, forms and has lived at many locations. The earliest physical records we can find from the earliest versions of what The Waysmeet Center/United Campus Ministry’s origins are dated from 1901 & 1924. Records indicate that at that time it was called the Advisory Board for Christian Work at UNH. (In one of its earliest stages, two students met at a dance put on by this organization at the Community Church. They went on to marry (The Skoglunds) and became one of Waysmeet’s long time sustainers from which we still receive an annual endowment!) In 1949, it became the Board of Directors of Protestant Religious Work at UNH. In 1950, it then became the United Protestant Association of UNH. The church and board recognized the need for this ministry to be broader than the congregational tradition, and in 1970 made it Ecumenical, changing its name and constitution to the Ecumenical Ministry to UNH. It was composed of traditions from the United Church of Christ, United Methodist, Presbyterian, and American Baptist traditions. The Episcopal and Catholic traditions were involved too, but in the 1970s when there was a more radical, anti-war, activist chaplain leading the organization, Rev. Larry Rouillard, the Episcopal and Catholic representations broke away. In 1977, the name was officially changed to The United Campus Ministry to UNH. The United Campus Ministry lived in many locations over the years, going from the Community Church of Durham to the MUB on the UNH campus (1950s), to Wolff House on Ballard Street, to Davis Avenue by the UNH Alumni Center, and in 1987 the building where The Waysmeet Center currently lives was purchased and became the beloved location which we all know and love today.
There have been many important and outstanding Chaplain figures leading The Waysmeet Center over the years. When Mary Westfall became the Chaplain at the United Campus Ministry in 1990, she broadened the scope of the ministry more, making it not only ecumenical but added a large interfaith element to the organization. Unitarian Universalist involvement started as well as that of local synagogues. Mary Holder, a member of the Community Church of Durham, a then-volunteer at the UCM/Waysmeet and a part of the UNH nursing department faculty, coined the name The Waysmeet Center, as she saw it as a place “where all ways meet”.
Our beloved Chuck Goeller’s involvement with Waysmeet started in 1995 when he started playing music for Mary’s bible study group. Chuck has been, as far as we know, our most long-term Waysmeetian, from playing music in 1995 to being our Administrative Director from 1996 – 2014, returning as our bookkeeper in the beginning of 2018, filling in as our Interim Executive Director from the beginning of 2020 to the fall of 2021, and then continuing to help us with bookkeeping until the late fall of 2022. Wearing many hats, Chuck has been initiating and riding Waysmeet’s wave of kindness for the better part of 27 years!
Paul Hubbe, a board member and member of the Community Church of Durham, was very involved in The Waysmeet Center and oversaw many projects. The Hubbes gave a large donation as well as ran a fundraising initiative that totaled $200,000 to create the addition of our beloved event room, Hubbe Hall, to the building in 1999 as well as add a sprinkler system throughout the building, and added what is currently Room 4 to our residential community. In the early 2000s, The Waysmeet Center/The United Campus Ministry needed to redirect our mission and how we fundraise because the church denominations drastically cut funding to NH campus ministries and no longer supported us in a way that we could remain in operation. Some of the other campus ministries in the state closed because of this. This led us to need to broaden our fundraising base and our reliance on other funding streams such as individual donors in the community and small grants.
Larry Brickner-Wood started as an Associate Chaplain with Waysmeet/UCM in 1997 while he also served at a community church in Rochester. In 2000, Larry became the Executive Director and Chaplain, initially as an interim but ended up staying in the role and leading the organization beautifully for over 20 years! Much of Waysmeet’s programming evolved and went through tremendous growth while Larry was here. When Larry started, there were routine bible study groups, a Soup Group put on by the Lee Community Church and Durham Community Church, and a Meditation group. There were three residents, and with the former Chaplain’s family’s living quarters becoming vacant, and based on student need, the residential community over time grew to 6 residents, and at times, 8 residents. In the late 90s/early 2000s, Waysmeet Center staff and volunteers started getting involved with the food pantry that was then in the basement of Christensen Hall at UNH, and eventually Waysmeet fully adopted and moved the Cornucopia Food Pantry to The Waysmeet Center building in 2007 and Cornucopia’s area served and programs have drastically grown ever since. The year 2004 was a big year for the additions of some of our favorite programs that live on today: Student Mark Joseph and friends at the Organic Garden Club at UNH initiated the start of the first Community Dinners at Waysmeet. Also in 2004, three feminist groups (The Feminist Action League, The Women’s Union, and Third Wave Feminists) initiated our first ever Drum Circle and Pasta Suppers that have lived on through today. Additionally, in 2004, Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson became the first openly gay bishop in NH and in America. This was controversial in the world at that time, and Waysmeet knew that some peacekeeper organizing needed to be done to support marginalized groups once hate groups came to try to make threatening presences in the community. Waysmeet initiated several peacekeeper trainings to support those needing help, and made it known that hate groups were not welcome here and didn’t have a voice here. During that year, 10 churches stopped funding Waysmeet because of Waysmeet’s role in supporting Bishop Robinson and the affected marginalized/LGBTQIA+ communities. Larry was not willing to change Waysmeet/UCM’s values despite losing this financial support and was not willing to change how inclusive Waysmeet was. Waysmeet was not willing to compromise peoples’ rights. Some board members at the time left who had questioned this. This is one of the many illustrated ways that Waysmeet has always been steadfast in standing up for what is most important, against bigotry and for the wellness and rights of our neighbors and community.
Waysmeet would not be what it is today without Larry leading it with such love for over 20 years, and making endless amounts of students feel home, accepted, welcomed and so loved. A marvelous celebration was held to celebrate Larry’s time at The Waysmeet Center at The Community Church of Durham at the end of February 2020. When Larry left Waysmeet for new endeavors, Chuck Goeller stepped in as an Interim Director to lead Waysmeet through summer 2021, Alexis Simpson directed Waysmeet from summer 2021 through summer 2022, and Alissa Megee and Shanti Scott, products of The Waysmeet Center themselves, were appointed Co-Executive Directors in October of 2022. Through lots of transition and navigation of a complicated world, The Waysmeet Center is still nourishing and brightening the lives of multitudes of students and community members daily.
Our Flames of Hope emergency assistance program started in 2002 or 2003 with a touching story. Waysmeet had a beloved student resident at the time who did not have the means nor had a healthy support system of means to get her wisdom teeth removed, and badly needed this done. The Waysmeet Center worked with Dr. Pat Remond, a kind dentist in Rochester, and raised $2,000 for this student to get this procedure done. When the student went to Dr. Chris Auty, the dental surgeon in Durham at the time, to get the procedure done, the Dr. was so touched by the story that he so kindly completed the procedure free of charge and asked Waysmeet to pay the money forward for another kind gesture. This is how the Flames of Hope fund was born! Larry named the fund after a beautiful song lyric in the song Last Night of the World by the musician Bruce Cockburn. (You should give the song a listen!) After establishing the program, Flames of Hope and Waysmeet partnered with other organizations (such as Danny’s Team, Unlimited Possibilities, local churches, etc.) and individuals to support many other families through various emergencies, including 3 huge immigration and refugee justice projects with families seeking asylum shortly after the program’s beginning. Through networking with other groups, the Flames of Hope program has supported individuals and families with things such as acquiring a vehicle or an oven, furniture, help paying overdue rent, heat and electric bills, health procedures, fighting injustices and of course immigration and refugee support.
A prominent value of The Waysmeet Center is providing empowerment and leadership opportunities to students and young people, to enable them to then go out into the world and advocate for kindness, equity and social justice. The Waysmeet Center would not be what it is without the many student interns and intentional community residents we have had over the years. Varalin Dees was the first intern in 2007 through the Community Leadership program at the Thompson School, and many have followed, such as Cathie Plante in the 2009-2010 school year. Social work student Emily Briand approached Larry in 2008 to ask if she could complete her social work field internship at Waysmeet, so in 2008-2009 Emily Briand and Caroline Ivy were the first Social Work Interns at The Waysmeet Center. Emily is now currently on our board of directors! Student Emily Dickman helped recreate the Waysmeet Associate Chaplain role in 2014 and helped lead the organization while Larry was on sabbatical that year. In years that followed, we had many other gems as Associate Chaplains, including Otto O’Connor, and most recently Emma Chinman and Nooran Alhamadam in 2018-2019. Each year since 2007, we have had several student interns from various departments (Social Work, Women and Gender Studies, Nutrition, etc.) and this is one of the ways that Waysmeet drives its value and mission of promoting empowerment and leadership opportunities for young people.
The Cornucopia Food Pantry was started by the UNH Chaplain’s Association in 1995. The Cornucopia Food Pantry lived in many different locations as well, from the Catholic Church to the Forest Park housing complexes, to a closet in the basement of UNH freshman dorm, Christensen Hall. It was open once per week, included only canned non perishable items, and was often locked when people went to visit! Staff from The Waysmeet Center/UCM staff would often volunteer at the pantry, keeping it alive, and in realizing many of the limitations it presented within its management and in the dorm basement location, initiated moving it to the basement of The Waysmeet Center’s building in 2007. Student Varalin Dees, a Community Leadership intern through the UNH Thompson School at the time, initiated the project of moving it to the Waysmeet building. Over the years, Cornucopia gained its current name and a perspective of Abundance, and grew to what it is today. Student Jessica Plourde one day asked the question, “why do we offer just canned food?”, and using the fridge and freezer that were donated by the Parent’s Association, initiated the project of offering fresh foods. Later, student Mikayla Wood, started encouraging donors to “donate what you eat”, so that Cornucopia could offer clients healthy and higher quality products, and donors could bring items from the grocery store that they themselves purchase for home. The Holiday Food Basket Program started very small, through one donor purchasing all Thanksgiving items herself for five families, which grew into local churches raising enough to provide baskets to ten families, and in more recent years this program has provided 200+ holiday baskets three times per year to local families. Our first ever Food Rescue Project started in 2009 with the donations of the famous day-old breads from When Pigs Fly, initiated by students Lindsey F and Alissa Megee. The Cornucopia Food Pantry started partaking in the Fresh Rescue program through the NH Food Bank sometime around 2012. When Trader Joes opened in Newington in 2013, they quickly sought out a pantry to donate their fresh rescue to, and Cornucopia was one of the first blessed recipients of their discarded but perfectly beautiful, acceptable foods. Cornucopia currently has a robust program with volunteers picking up fresh foods from local supermarkets 6 days per week! These fresh foods would otherwise be discarded by the supermarkets due to minor fruit bruises, approaching “best by” dates, or small dents in cans or boxes, and instead we use them to feed hundreds of people per week through our pantry. Cornucopia Food Pantry is currently open three days per week by appointment and is run by a stellar core group of volunteers and a student food pantry coordinator!
(Recorded primarily from talking to LBW and CG in October of 2022. Added some information from articles written by John Voll, board member and president, from 1972/3 – well into the 1990s.)