Eastern Shore Alano Club

For 17 years, the Eastern Shore Alano Club (ESAC) has striven to provide a safe and stable meeting place for people who are working to recover from the effects of addiction or other compulsive behaviors.  With the advent of COVID-19 and a recent flood in the building, we have been severely impacted financially in our efforts to continue to provide life-saving services to our community.

Pre COVID-19, the Club provided meeting space for over 26 meetings every week, with attendance more than 1,500 visits per month.  The ESAC closed on March 19, 2020 when Governor Hogan shut-down all Clubs through his Executive Order.  The closure of the Club continued until September 20, 2020, when the ESAC was permitted by our landlord (KRM) to have a “soft” opening.  Required to enforce social distancing and other preventative measures the ESAC reduced the number of meetings from 26 to 12-13 and reduced the numbers of attendees in each of the meetings. The efforts in limiting the number of attendees and meetings allows for a full cleaning of the meeting space to increase the safety of members seeking (and needing) in-person meetings.

In more conventional times, the ESAC managed to sustain its operations through revenues generated at the 26 meetings, membership dues, contributions and our annual fundraising at the Chestertown Tea Party.  The ESAC Lemonade Stand (“Get your ice-cold Lemonade”) generates approximately $8,000 - $10,000 for the ESAC every year.  As the Tea Party was cancelled in 2020 and will also be cancelled in 2021, the ESAC will suffer this revenue loss.  The Eastern Shore Alano Club Board established a rental reserve several years ago and though this reserve remains intact, the Club is looking to establish other fund raising opportunities in the wake of COVID-19 and the uncertainty of when the ESAC operations (like many other businesses and nonprofits in our community) can return to “normal,”  if that exists.

The ESAC has never sought support from the general community for help, but in these unprecedented times we now turn to our neighbors and friends for support.  Many households and families have experienced or have been close to someone struggling with addiction.  COVID-19 has seen critical increases in alcoholism, drug addiction and other compulsive behaviors.  The ESAC was established as a non-profit organization to provide a safe space for all people seeking recovery and that need has never been greater.  We turn to each of you for your support of this vital community resource.