Mrs Merritt ran first teenage club

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34127, 13 April 1976, Page 6

Mrs Merritt ran first teenage club

Mrs Bene Merritt, who died in Christchurch recently, was a founder of the Christchurch Teenagers’ Club set up in Sydenham in 1957. She had seen young people sitting around Cathedral Square on winter Sunday nights with nothing to do, and with her family’s help decided to hold dances for them and give them a meal. The well-supervised club in Carlyle Street grew to such an extent -that up to £OO teenagers attended at times. Assisted by her husband, the late Mr James Merritt, and her daughter, Pam, she served her young guests a buffet tea for a token entry charge of 2s 6d. Her son, Max, provided music for dancing with his group. The Meteors, now a successful rock band in London. After the club had become well-established it held annual concerts at the Civic Theatre to raise funds for welfare organisations and to foster talent among its members. When the club closed in 1965 it had raised $7200 and had given generous cheques to the Cerebral Palsy School, the Nurse Maude District Nurs-

ing Association, and the Canterbury branch of the Intellectually Handicapped Children’s Society. Mrs Merritt’s concern for lonely teenagers soon extended to other citizens. Mr Trevor King, a Christchurch theatre manager and entertainment promoter, became the club organiser. Visiting performers, including Howard Morrison, Bill and Boyd, Gray Bartlett, Tommy Adderley, and Ray Columbus performed with Max Merritt’s band as guests.

Appreciation of Mrs Merritt’s efforts for less fortunate young people was often expressed by the late Miss Mabel Howard, the member of Parliament for Sydenham, and the late Sergeant Paul Simmonds, who was in charge of the Sydenham police station when the Sunday entertainments were held. Many of the teenage members, now adults, showed their own appreciation for what Mrs Merritt had done for them by attending her funeral. Hundreds of telegrams' and floral tributes were received by the Merritt family from entertainers and Sromoters in Australia and ■ew Zealand, who had been associated with the club at some time. Max Merritt flew from London to attend the funeral service and has now rejoined The Meteors on a world tour. His parents, he felt, had given him the start to his career at the club as a pop singer and band leader.