Alano Club seeks community support

The nonprofit Alano Club of Kalispell, a former bar that now hosts meetings for local addiction treatment groups, is turning to the Flathead community to help resolve a debt and make repairs on its facility.

The club, which is independent from any treatment group, converted the former Paddy’s Bar at 153 North Meridian Road into a gathering place for various 12-step programs — such as Alcoholics Anonymous, Overeater’s Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Co-Dependents Anonymous and Gamblers Anonymous — two years ago. The club, which is funded largely through donations, has whittled the initial debt of $125,000 on that move down to $13,300. Community donations would help bring the club into the clear, said club manager Ray Beauregard, and then fund necessary improvements on the facility. These upgrades would include resealing the ceiling, redoing a patchy parking lot and installing security lights on the building’s exterior.

Both club members and recovery groups contribute dues to use the meeting rooms or have membership access to coffee and a space to hang out. But those funds don’t recoup monthly expenses.

The Alano club has worked with the community before in its efforts to “provide a clean and safe environment for recovery groups to meet,” said Beauregard. Until its move to Meridian Road, the club rented a brick building owned and then donated by Dallas and Sue Herron on First Avenue West North near Kalispell Center Mall. Limited parking and meeting rooms led the club to purchase the building vacated by Paddy’s Bar. A team of local volunteers transformed the space — handling legal paperwork and building large gathering rooms — into a center that hosts 56 meetings per week for 13 groups and is open to members seven days a week, 365 days a year.

The Kalispell chapter of the Alano Club now numbers about 110, said Beauregard, but he estimated that it sees over 600 people per week through recovery meetings.

Keeping up the club and the facility are essential to Alano’s contribution to the community, he said.

“We do provide a great service to the community because addiction is a very serious matter, no matter what the addiction is.”

Part of that service is maintaining confidentiality, which is why the club won’t host a public fundraiser.

“The biggest thing is to have a place where people with addictions can come in and feel comfortable and talk about things with others,” Beauregard said. “Everything is anonymous here.”

Donations can be sent to The Alano Club, P.O. Box 9762-59904 in Kalispell.

For more information or if you or someone you know is experiencing addiction, call (406) 314-4030.

Reporter Adrian Horton can be reached at 758-4439 or ahorton@dailyinterlake.com.