New Home for the Gratitude Club

The Gratitude Club has been a fixture in the Sarasota recovery community for over 18 years. Opened February 5, 2005, the club hosts 46 recovery meetings a week ranging from AA and NA to Over Eaters Anonymous and Co-Dependents Anonymous, including meetings dedicated to Spanish speakers. It is a 501(c)3 non-denominational organization that is spiritually based and dedicated to helping people recover and build new lives. Over 1,500 people attend meetings at the club weekly, over 78,000 annually.

One member described the first meeting at the club, hosted over 18 years prior. “We carried chairs and a coffee maker over from the men’s group meeting. We had rented out the center room. It was just a card table, coffee maker, and 10 to 12 chairs. Eventually, we took over the whole building… Seeing young guys and sponsees taking chips is always a highlight of being at the club.” A chip system is a way many meetings denote sobriety time in the program.

As a fixture in the sober community, it is a central location where people come and donate clothing and food for those in early recovery. There is a bulletin board for job and housing postings. The club regularly hosts sober events to provide a safe space for those trying to avoid alcohol or drugs but still meet people and socialize, including holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas as well as concerts and potlucks.

“Many people just come to the club for a meeting, and then stay to talk and soak in the peaceful atmosphere,” said one AA member. “This place is home to so many people. It will be missed terribly.”

The club is centrally located from many institutions that provide drug treatment, oversee drug related offenses, and monitor probation, like drug court, the courthouse, the hospital, First Step, and the jail. They are all in walking distance. While the club does not have any formal relationships with this organizations, people exiting those institutions regularly find themselves in a room at some point seeking help with their addictions and alcoholism. There are easily thousands of people that can say they found help walking through the doors of the Gratitude Club. Many regularly say that it saved their lives.

The Gratitude Club will be hosting its last meetings on July 31, 2023, and the doors will officially be closed at midnight on August 1, 2023. Those that are regulars to the club are devasted. Chuck Merritt, who runs the backbone of the club’s administration, is seeking help finding a new location.

The club needs help to continue its work supporting the sober community and being a beacon of hope for so many. Please donate generously.