Auto City AA helps keep people sober for 50 years
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The first step is admitting you have a problem. Auto City Alcoholics Anonymous Group has been helping people with the rest of the steps to keeping sober and living their best lives for 50 years.
The group celebrated the milestone at Friedensfeld Community Centre Jan. 18 with a dinner and dance. About 25 members of all ages and backgrounds now attend meetings.
Francis has been attending the Steinbach meetings for 47 of those 50 years, after he moved to the city with his family.
He did not want to use his last name to honour the anonymity and equality principals of the group. He explained committees help book meeting spaces and organize, but there is no authority in charge.
“We’re not made up of star power, we’re made up of higher power,” said Francis.
The invited guest Dave was from St Vital’s AA Group. He was there to tell of his own personal journey with alcoholism and sobriety.
And that is what makes up most of the meetings. Some go once a week, some attend every meeting which run five or six times a week. There are no rules, only community and support.
And it has been like that since the beginning, when a man from St Pierre who moved to Steinbach was asked to help another man who did not think he could stay sober through the Christmas season of 1974.
“We had a member here in Steinbach who was attending meetings at the Rat River Group in St Pierre. St Pierre started shortly before that.
“He had been living in St Pierre and for job and family reasons he had moved to Steinbach but was still very supportive of his group in St Pierre, so he used to travel back and forth.
“In the Christmas season 1974, he got a phone call from an employee of at that time it was the Alcoholics Foundation of Manitoba (changed to Addictions Foundation of Manitoba in 1993). Basically he phoned Claude because he knew him personally, and said ‘You’ve got to start a meeting in Steinbach. I’ve got a man here who’s needing treatment living in Steinbach, and we believe it very unlikely that he’ll make the trip to St Pierre for his continuing sobriety.’
“As a result of that, they gathered a few people together and the Rat River Group members said they would help to support. And as a result of it they decided that yes, we’ve got to start a group in Steinbach,” explained Francis.
And they made sure that man who needed help got it, making sure he was very involved in his own treatment plan.
“They made him the secretary treasurer and chair of the group, and meetings were held in his rec room in the basement. So that’s how it started, and the meetings were held in his rec room for the first year,” laughed Francis.
While that worked for a while, it soon became obvious a new space was needed for the growing group. Mayor A.D. Penner attended a dinner held by the group a year after it was formed.
“And that’s when they moved to a location that was then the old Kornelsen School. It was a classroom in the basement at the time. And the group has been in that same room for 49 years,” said Francis.
That building is now the home of the Steinbach Arts Council.
The program has not really changed much over the 50 years. There is more variety in faith and backgrounds of the people, but the idea of giving one self up to a higher power – whatever the power is to that person – still holds true for those attending.
“Sobriety still works,” said Francis.
He explained how after a person feels confident that they can join another AA group, they leave the community where they feel their reputations have been damaged.
“What happens quite often is because people have a reputation already, they sober up and sometimes their connections with businesses and work have been damaged over here and they move on to somewhere else and they’re successful there.
“So we’ve seen a lot of people recover through our groups, and that’s the benefit. It’s what keeps a guy like me after 50 years sobriety continuing to go to meetings,” said Francis.
He encouraged anyone thinking about joining to come sit in on one meeting.
“There’s no obligation to join the group if you don’t want to, but a lot of people do,” said Francis.
“All you have to do is come. You don’t even have to disclose your name if you don’t want to, and you don’t have to say anything. You can just come and listen, and if you want to share that will be your choice.”
Auto City AA Group meets in Steinbach Art Council’s basement at 8 p.m. every Sunday, Tuesday and Friday, every Saturday at 10 a.m., and has a women only meeting on Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m. The address is 304 Second Street.