Around Town
Concordia
The
Concordia Group
has met at the Zion
Evangelical Lutheran
Church in
Hummelstown since
April 12,
1977. One of
the founding members
saw the word
Concordia in a
church bulletin,
looked it up, and
thought it an
appropriate name for
the group.
Concordia means all
in harmony for the
same purpose, and
after visiting this
meeting, I feel this
group lives up to
its namesake.
A few home group members say they feel right at home when they walk through the doors to the Concordia Group. Joe L. says “When I was new in recovery, it was where people reached out to me for the first time.” Pete R. feels the group carries the message well because “we accept all comers and have a frank, bare bones sobriety discussion. Concordia was my first meeting and has been my home group ever since.
The
Concordia Group
meets Sunday,
Monday, and Tuesday
Evenings at 7:30 PM,
with Monday night
being a Big Book
study.
contributed
by Matthew L of the
Hershey Group, as
the first in a
series about local
groups.
Survivors
The
Middletown
Group held meetings at many different locations around town. John and Heidi M
had moved here from California in 1979 and opened a shop in the downtown. People
would stop in and tell them
that
there was a meeting at a particular location, at a certain time, but there
always seemed to be a conflict that prevented their going. Finally, in the late
80s, they were told that the Middletown meeting was now meeting in Highspire at
the police station. They thought that was rather strange to be meeting in a
police station, also that the Middletown Group was meeting in another town. They
decided to attend, and made the short trip, only to find the building dark. When
they were back home, they got to talking about starting their own meeting, after
all, the worst that could happen would be that the two of them would be the only
ones there, sitting and drinking coffee, just like at that particular moment.
They were able to rent space at the St. Peter's Lutheran Church on Union Street,
and that was the beginning of the Survivors Group. It was their idea to
incorporate into this little group, many of the aspects of groups they were
familiar with in California. Many of those things are still characteristics of
the Group to this day, which still meets in Middletown on Thursdays at 7:00PM in
the Middletown Presbyterian Church, on the corner of North Union and East Water
Streets.
contributed by John
M from St Petersburg, FL
Hershey Group
The Hershey Group,
one of the oldest active groups in the Harrisburg Area, will be celebrating
their 50th anniversary this December (2007). Their first meeting was
held December 12, 1957, when a group of 12 recovered alcoholics met at Wally's
house in the Village of Ebenezer, Lebanon County. Early in January 1958, meeting
on Wednesdays, the Group moved to the All Saints Episcopal Church in Hershey,
later moved to the Hershey Medical Center in 1971, and finally in January 1983,
moved to their current location in the Derry Presbyterian Church.
Currently, meetings are held four times per week. Wednesday is a closed
literature based discussion meeting, where someone reads and shares about a
piece of AA literature that had meaning for them in their recovery. On Friday,
is a closed Step and Tradition meeting, reading and discussing a Step or
Tradition (in sequence) each week. Saturday has a beginners meeting at 7:00PM
before the open discussion meeting at 8:00PM. On the first Saturday of the month
a speaker is invited to share their message in an open speaker meeting.
The Hershey Group has been committed to carrying a strong
message, thru its commitment to the principles of the Program and the 12 Steps
and 12 Traditions. Sponsorship has been a keystone of the Group's message; at
the end of each meeting the chairperson invites anyone without a sponsor to see
him/her after the meeting to arrange for a temporary sponsor.
Monthly business meetings, periodic group inventories, active
participation with the Harrisburg Area Intergroup, and the Group's Annual
holiday dinner keep the Hershey Group a dynamic member of the Harrisburg AA
community.
contributed by EJ
from the Hershey Group
DILLSBURG
Welcome to the Dillsburg Group of
Alcoholics Anonymous, those of you who have the desire to quit drinking.
Let us tell you a little bit about ourselves. We are a bunch of drunks who
meet 3 times a week to share our experience, strength and hope with each other that
we may stay sober and learn to live lives that are happy, joyous and free.
Our meeting started about 35 years ago when our friend (and
old-timer) Ed L. sat, many times alone, waiting for drunks to show up so he
could carry the AA message and stay sober himself. Through the years the
Dillsburg group has ebbed and flowed, grown at times and limped along at
other times. At present we are growing like gangbusters!
We currently meet on Monday's at 7:01 pm for a group-generated
3-topic discussion meeting; always interesting and inspirational. On
Wednesday's (7:01 pm) we run a Big Book Study group where we read and discuss
passages of our "textbook for living". Rarely do we finish the
book in a year, or even two. Once a month we tackle a story and wouldn't
you know it...we can all relate! On Friday's at 8:01 pm is our Steps
and Traditions meeting where we study the 12&12. We try to read and
discuss one step each week, in 12 Step order, but we will always jump back to
the Step 1 when we have newcomers visiting. Then, to the consternation of
some, and to the benefit of us all, we study a 
Tradition once a month. We often demonstrate some of our best and most lively
discussions on these occasions!
If you are fortunate enough to be a first time visitor to the Dillsburg group
you will receive our rare visitor chip, specially made of Chinese hardwoods and
printed in royal purple ink, on both sides. We all covet the prized
Dillsburg wooden chip! And you too can own one. Come out for a
visit.
You may be wondering about our interesting starting times.
You are not alone. AA Folklore has it that, back in the day, as a
consolation to some group members who wanted to change the meeting times to
later in the evening, a compromise was reached and the meetings were thus
changed to reflect the agreed upon later starting time...one minute later!
(Wouldn't you have just loved to have been at that business meeting?!)
The Dillsburg Group hosts an annual AA Pignic (that's right, PIGNIC) each
September for alcoholics and their families. It is always a good time with
great food (lots of pig), awesome speakers, excellent fun and fellowship and
cool prizes. Everyone is welcome!
Feel free to stop in and check us out sometime. You can
find us in the HAI meeting schedule. We look forward to seeing you at a
meeting. Until then...Keep It Simple, Spiritually!
Contributed by Terri Z
Winding It Up
Tucked away among the mountains at the northern most
part of Dauphin County in the little town of Lykens, the “Winding It Up”
meeting continues to lend its hand to those who want to be sober. Many of you
know us from the Sobriety Hike which we have each October.
Our group fluctuates in size just as any group has its ups and downs. We have
our core group of old timers and those working on becoming old timers. Most
meetings have only six to ten members in attendance.
But then we have a burst of new comers and fill our tiny meeting room. The faces
may change but the spirit of the meeting continues since its inception. It is
hard to hide in our small group.
We stick to the topic during our discussion meetings. Rarely
does any member use the meeting as a therapy session. We keep it fresh by
alternating between discussion and study/reading type meetings. When the group
is small it allows for multiple shares. This tends to keep us out of our heads
and in tune with the flow of the discussion.
The Winding It Up Group has been the stepping-stone for many
people. Many moved on to bigger and better things in their lives. In many ways
our “country” AA is being spread around our Country. Many of our drunks got
sober here at home but used sobriety to improve their lives and become
productive citizens. Their jobs have taken them far and wide. Some of our
members even made the big move over the “County Divide” known as Peter’s
Mountain and attend meetings in the Harrisburg area.
One must be willing to go to any lengths to be sober in our group. Acrophobic
people avoid the metal fire escape leading to our meeting room, by taking the
easier softer way, using the indoor stairs. Besides the usual coffee and tea
being available, there is always a selection of candy on the table. We have an
open discussion meeting on Thursday. We do Big Book the first Sunday; 12 and 12,
the second Sunday; As Bill Sees It on the third week; and Living Sober
on the fourth week. If there is a fifth Sunday we have an open discussion. Our
meetings are at 7 P.M. Come and visit; we’re a little bit country and a whole
lot of AA.
Thanks to Carol B for sharing this
about her home-group.
INTO ACTION
Every year, in the
middle of August, the Middletown Groups had to relocate their meetings. Their
church, the Presbyterian church of Middletown, was occupied with a week of
Vacation Bible School. Fortunately for Middletown AA, the parishioners at the
Middletown Evangelical United Methodist Church, a block down the street,
graciously volunteered to host these Middletown 
AA
meetings. Their minister became so interested in us that he asked us if we would
be willing to start an AA meeting at their church. This idea finally came to
fruition, after many years, and the new group was formed in September 2006.
The founders of this new group agreed on a speaker meeting
that would promote an enthusiasm for the AA Program. They decided to adopt the
format from the Pacific Group, currently the largest AA meeting in the world.
The new format begins with two ten minute speakers, a refreshment break for
fellowshipping and then the 45 minute message from the main speaker.
The group has sought out a variety of speakers, men and
women, from local and distant groups, whose stories provide a strong message of
hope to the group. These speakers are alcoholics who have attained their
sobriety through strong sponsorship ethics and putting the principals of AA into
action.
The group’s membership has continued to grow over the past
17 months since its start. You will find the Into Action group welcoming
and enthusiastic about AA. You can check out this speaker meeting every
Wednesday night at 7:00PM, a block east of the other Middletown meetings. The
location is at the Evangelical United Methodist Church on the corner of Spruce
and Water Streets in Middletown.
Thanks to several group members for
sharing this about this growing group.
Out of the Dark
The Out of the
Dark Group was formed in January of 1999 and continues to meet at
9:00AM. Sunday, at the
Wormleysburg
Borough Hall at the corner of Market and 2nd Street. Turn off Front Street
onto E Market St (between 2nd and 3rd Avenues), go
one block and the Borough Hall is on the right. They have come a long way
from their first meeting that was called off because of a blizzard on the first
Sunday and the next week's meeting had eighteen people in attendance. It has
grown in leaps and bounds to an average attendance of seventy folks. From the
beginning this evolving group has put the emphasis on sharing by those who are
new to AA or those who have not shared in the last month or so. This makes for a
great mix of powerful sharing. The group hosts two yearly events to
celebrate recovery. The first Sunday of every new year is to celebrate
their anniversary with an open speaker meeting and brunch. And in early
July they celebrate their joy in recovery at Negley Park that
sits above the meeting house and looks over the Susquehanna river.
This event is also an open speaker meeting with a summer brunch that
follows. And as of January of 2007, every Sunday is an open speaker meeting
but without the brunch. The group is looking for more home group members
to share the joy of spreading the message that our primary purpose is to stay
sober and help other alcoholics achieve sobriety.
Contributed by homegroup member Leann H.
Middletown Trudgers
The Middletown
Trudgers Group has
met 7:00PM Tuesdays at the Middletown Presbyterian
Congregation's Fellowship Room, down the steps from the East Water Street
entrance, since its founding in 1991. The founding members had been so
comfortable with the Group message of Middletown's other group that they wanted
to have another meeting in town. They wanted to assure that the message was
about how we work the Twelve Steps in our daily lives. They wanted to have a
group that tried to instill the Traditions in their daily group actions, and
they wanted a group that relied on strong sponsorship to grow the principles of
the Program in as many of its members as possible. Although the format of the
meetings has changed over the years, all have tried to include all of these
aspects. Currently, the meetings are Open Big Book discussion meetings, except
the last meeting of the month, which is a closed 90 minute Step and Tradition
meeting with a guest speaker, who shares his/her experience with both the Step
and the Tradition of the month. (January - Step & Tradition One) They invite
all who desire to learn about and/or recover from the disease of alcoholism to
join them any Tuesday night.
The 19th Street Group
I've tried my best to listen to what was being said inside and outside. I heard
a lot of things about 19th Street before I ever attended a meeting
there; widely varying opinions. So I checked it out to form my own opinion and
found it was really the only place up here that I felt I fit in. The sometimes
blinding smoky haze blended with the aroma of fresh coffee, which appealed to my
peculiar tastes. As did the level of acceptance offered. I immediately was
overwhelmed with the message being carried Monday though Friday at 8:30 p.m.;
Saturday and Sunday at 7:00p.m. It was the message that I heard at my very first
A.A. meeting. Although there were some extreme expletives and attitudes used to
shoulder that message, it was the message of Alcoholics Anonymous in its purest
form! Under any and all conditions, don't pick up a drink!. You never, ever have
to feel this way again if you work the Twelve Steps with a sponsor and make
contact with the God of your understanding. No wordy, complicated monologues
here. No, only the simplicity that touched me and gave me hope my first night
without a drink. As 19th Street is truly the front lines for
"The Good Fight," I now feel like I have a place here to carry the
message exactly as it was given to me.40th Street Women
best
to make sure that the Third Tradition was honored by welcoming them.) When
I was new to this area and still fairly young in recovery, I found the members
of this meeting to be warm and welcoming. I made the meeting my home group
and still attend on a regular basis because I not only still feel connected, but
also want to remain available to welcome the new members as I was welcomed.
Many of the recovery houses attend our meeting and I want to be there in order
to pass it on because “you’ve got to give it back in order to keep it!”
There is definitely something special about this meeting to me.
While we are all just people trying to help each other recover from alcoholism,
women share a unique bond and the women’s meeting facilitates our ability to
share and recover on a more intimate level. God willing, the women’s
meeting will remain viable for many years to come – I know I will keep coming
back! 7:00PM – 40th
Street Women's Group – St. Catherine Church, 40th & Derry Sts
(entry 40th St) – "CD,W,NS" Some Are Sicker Than
Others
If
you happened to be traveling on Linglestown Road towards the River from the
Square, and you turned right at the Stauffers of Kissel Hill just a little
before 6:30PM on a Friday evening, you just might happen upon about a dozen
people standing in front of the Bethany Church of the Nazarene, right behind
Stauffers, waiting for the new Some Are Sicker Than Others meeting to
start.
Not long ago, a local resident who had recently started
attending the Bethany Church was talking to the minister, who said they
had a beautiful new church and he hoped that it would get a lot of use. The idea
sprang to life to start an AA meeting handy to those wanting a meeting in the
area. So, Dan got permission to start the meeting which had its initial meeting
on July 11, 2008, and attendance has been running at about a dozen so far.
Several shared that they wanted a meeting where the sharing would be rigorously
honest. Drop in on them sometime, I was glad I did. 6:30PM
– Some Are Sicker Than Others – Bethany Church of the Nazarene, 1605 Parkway
West, Linglestown – "OD,NS"
Thanks to Don S for
sharing this.
Mid-City
The Mid City Group claims to be
the oldest registered group meeting continuously
since its founding in the living room of Chet H in 1953. This was a remedy to
there being no downtown meeting for the drifters and panhandlers who dwell
there. The significance of this claim, however, may be moot. The Harrisburg
Group (later renamed the Second Street Group), which formed in 1941, was
the first registered group in the city; and from that group, meetings moved to
the Fellowship House when its construction was completed in 1951. The Fellowship
House Group (a name adopted some time later as 2nd Street Group was
no longer appropriate for a meeting on 19th Street) chose not to be
registered, because they wished to admit persons to meetings who suffered from
other addictions. In 1958, members of that group decided they wanted to have a
registered meeting and formed a second group to meet at the Fellowship House,
1251 South 19th Street, and so they called that group the 19th Street
Group. Therefore, all three groups can claim their origins in the Harrisburg
Group.
Regardless of this
"hairsplitting", the Mid-City Group continues to meet in the downtown,
which was the calling card of the Harrisburg Group. It has met at many different
locations, surviving building demolitions, floods, and other disruptions. The
group conscience has dictated that meeting sharing be done with "no bullsh__",
so that the message of recovery be carried honestly to its inner-city
members and guests. The group currently meets in the church at the corners of
Vine and River Streets (enter from corner of Front and Paxton Sts) 7:30 pm
on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Attendance at the weekday meetings is usually
light, but Saturday is well attended. Tuesday is a Big Book meeting and the
others are Closed Discussion. Mid-City has moved to the Salem United Church
of Christ on the corner of Chestnut and Third Sts.
Thanks to Chet H, one of the
14 co-founders, and Dave B a current homegroup member for contributing to this
article.
The Big Book Study Group
The BBSG was started by a few sober
alcoholics who have a passion for our basic text, Alcoholics Anonymous. At the
time there were more than 80 discussion meetings on the weekly schedule with
only a dozen or so meetings that were literature-based - coming from the Big
Book, 12 & 12, As Bill Sees It, etc...
The first meeting of the Big Book Study Group was held on Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2003
at 
7pm in a small class room at Faith United Church of Christ, 1120 Drexel Hills
Blvd, New Cumberland. Attendance began to build slowly to between 20 and 30 per
week. In 2007 the church graciously allowed us to move from the intimate class
room setting to the Fellowship Hall, without raising our rent. Further proof
that God will help you create the fellowship you crave.
Our meeting is open. All are welcome to attend. The format is simple: we start
on the Title Page and continue through the first 164 pages plus Dr. Bob's
Nightmare. Someone reads a couple of paragraphs, then people share their
experience, strength and hope around what has been read. When we get to the end
of Dr. Bob's Nightmare, we start over at the Title Page. The last Tuesday of the
month we read and share on a selected Tradition for a few minutes before picking
up where we left off in the Big Book.
We realize that simply reading/studying/discussing the Big Book does not keep us
sober. Still, the Forward
to the First Edition states
the purpose of the book is to show other alcoholics precisely
how we have recovered. We need this vital information so that we know what
actions to take if we care to get the results the first 100 got. Our own inventions of
an easier softer way, almost always lead to disaster. We hope to see
you soon! Visit us on the web at www.bbsgpa.org
Thank
The Way Out Group
In 1994, a group of recovered alcoholics
felt threatened at a meeting they attended, so they started a new meeting at the
Epworth United Methodist Church, at 21st and Derry Streets in
Harrisburg; they called it Second Chance. The meeting did not last long
enough to become registered, but a group of alcoholics from other meetings
decided to give it new life. Perhaps they did that by giving it a new name,
Live Free or Die. This meeting was registered, but the service work required
to make a meeting seemed to fall on the shoulders of the one person who felt it
was important that the meeting be there for other alcoholics. It soon became
known as the "That person's name meeting", which was threatening to that
person's anonymity (humility). It seemed to imply that one person was more
important than the rest. She couldn't make them stop using her name, so she
stopped attending in hopes someone else would take the lead in service. They
didn't, and it stopped meeting in 1997.
In the hope of restarting AA in that part of the city, that person gathered
eight friends she felt would do what was necessary to bring the message of the
Big Book back to the Epworth location. The new meeting was started on April 24,
2003, which they named for one of the first planned titles for our Big Book, the
Way Out Group. With a hope of being inclusive, rather than
exclusive, the meeting was established and continues as a 75 minute Open
Discussion with a meeting secretary and a chair-person, and includes the reading
of the original versions of the Preamble and How It Works to open the meetings.
An added benefit has been someone sharing about one of the 12 Concepts briefly
before the chairperson shares to provide the grist for a topic. It is asked that
all share only about the disease of alcoholism. Like this meeting changed names,
so did the name of the church which is now the Bethany A. M. E. Church, the new
owners of the church building. You can join them to help share the message of
Alcoholics Anonymous at 21st and Derry, Mondays at 7:00PM. We've
learned, it is not the cleverness of what is said, but the consistency of the
actions we take that make A A successful.
SALVATION ARMY
Recently after chatting with a friend, the topic came up regarding the Harrisburg Salvation Army. We wondered “what is our purpose there?” And “what does the Salvation Army want us to provide to their facility as AA members?” Well this is what I was told: The Salvation Army commitment started a little over six years ago and in the beginning was an open AA meeting. Through experience, they have found that changing this to an “Institution Commitment” for the Harrisburg area has worked out much better for all those involved. It allows for the opportunity for the residents to hear a message of hope each week from those recovering from alcoholism without any distractions that could pull them away from hearing what they need. This is not a meeting open to the public, so we ask that members don’t treat it as that.
Everyone who has been around AA for at least 10 minutes will hear over and
over that we need to give back what was so freely given to us.
I remember the
gratitude I felt when I was in institutions, and the AA members took the
time--rain or shine, holiday or no holiday-- to bring a message of hope to my
fellow alcoholics and me. That was just one of the reasons I began to fall in
love with this wonderful, life-saving program.
If you are staying sober and practicing the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous and would be interested in sharing your experience, strength and hope, please click on the “contact us” link to put in your request. Also, as the current speaker-getter, you can reach Barb directly @ 717-324-3860. We want recovering alcoholics that come from all walks of life and have taken all 12 steps to be able to contribute to this important service position. All that we ask is that you’ve been through the 12 steps and focus on a message of hope. I know that it was important to hear about problems my fellow alcoholics were facing, but it was even more powerful to hear the solution they had, to walk through it sober with their God (or higher power). Except for the third Monday of each month, the 7:30 Monday evening meeting at 3650 Vartan Way is a closed speaker meeting, restricted to those in service, invited to attend (Turn onto Vartan, just less than one mile North from Interstate 81 on Progress Ave).
As we are directed in Chapter 5: “Our stories disclose in a general way what we used to be like, what
happened, and what we are like now.” And so, if you are willing to share your
message of hope with other alcoholics in need of hope and direction in their
lives, contact us through the link above or by phone.
RULE 62
A couple decided it would be nice to have a
meeting in their neighborhood, one that had the qualities they had learned were
important to their recovery. They gathered some friends together and planned how
their new meeting would be structured. They wanted to make the meeting both fun,
and different from other meetings. They had been to meetings where people
shared their
upsetting difficulties with life and felt they were already familiar enough with
difficulties, what they wanted was to hear the solution to dwelling on our
problems. What they ended up with was "the No Sitting in your S--t" group. For
fun, they passed out "Pez dispensers" to new visitors, and to control who shared
at the discussion meeting, they passed around a rubber chicken. In order to
share, you had to hold the rubber chicken, and after all, you couldn't really
take yourself too seriously if you were holding a rubber chicken. They soon
decided that their group name might offend some people and they came up with a
new name that suited their purpose just as well, and thus the Rule 62 Group
was born. The group recently celebrated 10 years of carrying its message, and if
you don't know what Rule 62 is, go ask them. They welcome all winos, but whining
is strictly prohibited. The Rule 62 meeting is located at St Mark's Evangelical
Lutheran Church, 4200 Londonderry Road in Lower Paxton Township, Harrisburg.
(Behind the Union Deposit Road Lowe's and next to Osteopathic Hospital). They
meet every Sunday evening at 7:30 PM.
Living Sober Group
The Living Sober Group started in July 1998 in the building adjacent to St. Andrew in the Valley Episcopal Church, at 4620 Linglestown Rd.,
Lower Paxton Twp.
"My husband, Peter, and I found that there were no AA meetings in that area, and we knew there were plenty of people who could use one. That's the how and why of our beginning;' said Louise M.
(The two have moved out of the area, but the meeting continues.)Fellowship House Group
The
Fellowship House Group traces its roots back to the original Harrisburg
Group which was founded in 1941. Members of the Harrisburg Group which then met
at 2nd and Chestnut Street formed Alano Inc. (which became Alanon Inc. due to a
typo error in preparing the Articles of Incorporation) to secure funding and
construct a building to house recovery at 1251 South 19th Street. It is
interesting to note that the architectural design of the building was made to
allow for a future addition of a second floor for six rooms to be used for detox
and alcohol recovery. The group
chose not to be registered because they felt that since the collection plate was
used to maintain the building, it would be improper to be a registered group,
and also there was a desire to admit persons wishing to recover from any
addiction to their meetings, although the AA format was used. The
number of weekly meetings were very limited over the early years, but since the
late seventies the number of
meetings grew to the current 19.
Weekday mornings at 7 am
will find a large group of surprisingly awake and enthusiastic AAs at the
Attitude Adjustment Group meeting which is a Closed Discussion (those desiring
to recover only) to get members started on the right basis for their day. The
weekday Noon meetings also draw a large crowd of AAs who can take advantage of
their lunch hour for a little recovery. The afternoon 4:30 pm meetings are also
closed discussion and offer a chance for an early meeting for those who may not
be able to attend evening meetings. On weekends there is an enthusiastic and
intense 10 am meeting, using a chairperson to share briefly to establish the
basic topic for discussion, like other Fellowship House meetings. The 2 pm
Saturday and Sunday meetings have a varying attendance but do carry a message.
All of the Fellowship House Group meetings try to carry the message that the
principles of the 12 Steps are the blueprint for a happy, meaningful, and sober
life.