News & Events

UPDATE ON CLUB OPERATIONS

As you all know, things at the Club have been very different since the pandemic hit.

First, we had to make the difficult but necessary decision to close the Club in accordance with CDC recommendations and State mandates from March 14th to June 15th, 2020. During that time, many meetings went online, and the people of the Club had to stay connected primarily virtually. It was truly amazing to see what our community would do to keep each other afloat.

After a long three-month closure, we were able to reopen our doors to in-person meetings on a limited basis. Capacity restrictions, mask requirements, and social distancing measures were implemented as recommended by state and public health officials. Hours were temporarily reduced until the Club was back to full staff and had a better idea of how operations would look during a pandemic.

Fast forward to June 2021, as vaccines become widely available and community spread continues to decrease, statewide COVID-related restrictions are being lifted. As such, restrictions at the WAC are being lifted as well…

As much as we can’t believe it, the 2019 Holiday Season has arrived. Before you know it, every store from here to Texas will be playing the same Christmas music playlist on repeat ad nauseam. And don’t even get me started on the Hallmark Christmas movies!

Some don’t care for the holiday season because it can be difficult on many levels. Family relationships are tough; some have no family; some are working on their first sober holiday season; and so on.

Others love the festivities and look forward to the time with friends and family.

Most of us fall somewhere in between.

The good news is, no matter what category you fall in there’s always a safe place to fall back on. The Club offers a warm and inviting place for recovering friends to gather and enjoy the holidays no matter what your circumstances are.
If this is your first sober holiday season, or if you struggle through the holidays in general, I’d like to lend a few reasons why staying sober through the holidays might be a good idea. . .

Our Club was founded 50 years ago, when a small group of people in recovery decided this area needed an Alano Club and began the process of creating what we have today.

After several years of work establishing ourselves as a nonprofit business, we finally found our first home on Fourth Avenue in 1975. . .

I was driving around in my car. I had been drinking for 3 solid days and was sure I was going to be fired from my job for no call/no show. I wanted to go to the bar, but I knew that the chances of blacking out again were very high and in that divinely-inspired moment of clarity I knew that I had no control over what would happen to me if I picked up another drink. It was 1981. . .

My first AA meeting was at the Washtenaw Alano Club.  For the first year of my sobriety, I didn’t go anywhere except the Alano Club for my meetings.  I don’t even recall when I got adventurous enough to check out meetings away from the Club – it may have been another year before I felt that confident.  The Alano Club was within my comfort zone.  Nothing else was. . .

I first entered our Club in 1985. It was located on S. State St. in a small rented building. A picture of that building hangs in Room 3. It was my first week of sobriety and I didn’t have a clue. It was smoke-filled and had a snack counter run by a strange man. You had to go down a steep and narrow set of stairs to get to the meeting rooms (also filled with smoke). No one told me to get out, and some of the people seemed friendly – so I stayed. Through the years, I’ve attended other meetings (held in churches), but to this day I consider our Club my spiritual home…

Over 17 years ago, when I first stepped through the doors of the Washtenaw Alano Club, I had no idea what a profoundly positive impact the WAC community would have on my life. With the support of the fellowship that I found here, my life has become rich in ways I feared I would never experience. I’ve now been married for over 10 years, I’m able to be productive, consistent and committed both with work and with music, writing and art, which are my passions. The theories about what I thought my life should be before I got sober have mercifully evaporated into the vapor that they always were (unbeknownst to the drinking me). Every time I pull into the WAC parking lot, or drive by, or simply think about our Club, I feel a magnetic pull to the constancy of this place and this community. I’m deeply gratified to have been chosen as one of our trusted servants, charged with ensuring that others will be able to come to know the peace and serenity that is available here.