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The Sacramento Zoroastrian Association (SZA) will have its 850 sq ft Dar-e-Mehr ready in the next two months. The Association will also be upgrading the Sacramento Zoroastrian Center (SZC), the 10,000 sq ft main structure which will be used for activities like children’s classes, a library, a kitchen, and a big meeting hall where they can have sit down dinner functions and gatherings. The two structures, at a distance of 15 ft, will accommodate the needs of nearly 100 Zoroastrian families who reside in the Sacramento area, notes an email from Darius Captain on behalf of the SZA.
As per their plans, by April 2016 they demolished the walls that surrounded the patio area of the original side structure on their property to build in its stead the Dar-e-Mehr, at a cost of $ 150,000. To accommodate 200+ people at the SZC, their main one level building (ground floor only) which was earlier owned by a bank, they have submitted architectural drawings for upgrades costing $ 250,000 that are awaiting clearance from the city authorities. They will be installing additional fire sprinklers, bathrooms, new heating/air conditioning units to replace the current central system, etc. "The existing building structure is not being changed from outside, only internally,” states Captain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The SZC property lies "in the Mather Air Force Base located in the city of Rancho Cordova, about 15 miles from downtown Sacramento. The US government closed this Base over 20 years ago and the property was given to the county... (In addition to the two structures) our property also has open ground parking space for about 63 cars. Our immediate neighbors are the new BAPS Swaminarayan Hindu temple building, about five times larger than ours, owned by Gujaratis. Once again, like in India, the Gujaratis and Parsi/Zoroastrians are living side by side to each other!” explains Captain in response to Parsiana’s questions.
The SZA that has recently joined the Federation of Zoroastrian Associations of North America caters to nearly 25% Parsis and 75% Zoroastrians from Iran with two to three dozen school and college going children and some senior citizens, the majority being 20 to 50 years of age. "Since the nearest Dar-e-Mehr and Center was located in San Jose, about 130 miles away in the Bay area, a need was felt to have another one more locally suited,” notes Captain.
The Dar-e-Mehr would not have been possible "without the tremendous support of community members who gave us a helping hand by donating their time and effort,” acknowledges their website sacza.org From the time they had their conceptual design and three dimensional renderings ready for the Dar-e-Mehr in January 2015, SZA has been busy finding an architect, gathering estimates from contractors, getting clearances from the Planning Department, Building Department, Fire Department, obtaining air quality approval until finally they were granted a construction permit on February 29, 2016 as detailed on the timeline on their website.
"This is just the beginning! There is a lot more to be done and we need all the help we can get from our community members,” notes an email from the Association, forwarded to us by Dr Ardeshir Damania. The head of the building committee is Mehran Torki who is also the president of the Association for the year 2015-16. The other office bearers are vice president Anahita Azarkeyvan, secretary Khosro Kalantari, treasurer Babak Dinyari and directors Hooshang Mehrshahi, Rostam Salamati and Mehrnoosh Torki. "The trustees of the Zoroastrian Charity Funds of Hong Kong, Canton and Macao very generously pledged to donate $ 200,000 out of which a sum of $ 100,000 has already been received by us,” states Captain.
"The afarganyu for our Dar-e-Mehr has already been generously given to us by the trustees of the H. B. Wadia Atash Behram through the good offices of one of their trustees, Nadir Modi, and has been with us for over a year now, awaiting installation in our new Dar-e-Mehr,” adds Captain.
The genesis of SZA lies in the Zoroastrian Women Organization founded by five Zoroastrian ladies in 2010 to address community needs. Four years later they changed their name to Sacramento Area Zoroastrian Organization and invested in a community center at a cost of $ 550,000 having raised $ 285,737 and borrowing a sum of $ 350,000 for 18 months at no interest (see "Females in the forefront,” Zoroastrians Abroad, Parsiana, April 21, 2014).  In order to expand they once again changed the name of the organization to SZA, opened their membership to men, and registered themselves as a non profit organization with tax exempt status. After using their premises informally for their activities for nearly a year, they "felt the need to officially re-zone the property.”
The goal of this six-year-old organization is to assist "Zoroastrian families to adapt and integrate into the US society in the best way possible while preserving the Zoroastrian culture and language through programs, activities and services that are in full compliance with the teachings of Zoroaster and within the boundaries of those beliefs. This will lead to raising a generation of Zoroastrians who are connected to their roots while being productive citizens within our society,” declares their website.