“I call it home.”
“A place that saved my life.”
“A place of safety.”
“A place for recovery before we know what recovery means.”
“A place to help others.”
These are just a few of the answers given by people who frequently visit the Chehalis-based XII Step Club of Lewis County, a support nonprofit organization that helps victims of addiction with the basic principles of recovery. The responses came from a recent survey, but the impact extends back decades as the club is celebrating its 40-year anniversary with a fundraiser event on Saturday, May 3 at 2 p.m. at the club’s facility, located at 1757 N. National Ave., in Chehalis.
The event will begin with a meeting to share the club’s history over the past 40 years before continuing with an open forum where attendees can share their memories of the club and what it means to them. Next is a $10 dinner with pulled pork sliders, coleslaw and free cake and coffee.
The anniversary event also includes a raffle for an overnight stay at Great Wolf Lodge with a $399 voucher, and the ticket will be pulled on May 31. Speakers from Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous communities will talk about their stories.
The responses to the survey fueled Darlene Sather to want to get involved as the board president in January after observing and participating in meetings for a couple of years prior. She witnessed the impact that the club can have on people not just in getting through different types of addiction but helping them back into the workforce and reconnecting with their families.
“I felt a real calling to the club,” Sather said. “It’s miracles happening right before your face. People come in and they can’t even give you eye-to-eye contact. Once they start working in the XII Step Club program, they start interacting with people, and that connection of dealing with someone that has walked in their shoes is the key to our program. It’s that bond that can’t happen in a doctor’s office.”
Sather said the program had been “going downhill” since the COVID-19 pandemic and she was inspired to put it on a new track through her 45 years of working with nonprofit organizations, as well as accounting.
Her short-term vision for the organization was to strengthen its relationship with its landlord, the Chehalis Outfitters to improve the facility, which used to be a restaurant.
“It has the possibility of growth to start what I want to brand as a recovery cafe and have people that want to get back into the workforce that basically have no work references anymore. They’ve burnt their lives down to the ground, and so they’re starting fresh in their recovery journey,” Sather said. “I want to start training them to work the POS system and to work the front counter, and then we want to give them certificates of achievement. They can then have a portfolio to go out into the world, and it will give them a step up for references to go and look for a job.”
Sather’s long-term vision for the XII Step Club is to continue to provide opportunities for people to be reintegrated into the community. She wants people to understand that the facility is not a “glum lot” and is a place where they can feel welcome.
“I want to go back into the community and see if we can get funding for leasehold improvements and fix it up to where it’s inviting and bring in like foosball tables and ping pong tables,” she said. “It’s a place where people can come and socialize and want to go hang out there and get that feeling of, ‘Oh, this is where recovery is.’ That’s what people coming off the street need to see that we are like you and look at us now. We’re living recovery.”
The club, officially known as the XII Step Club of Lewis County-Alano Club 28, was incorporated on April 28, 1986. The original members of the club felt the need for a permanent meeting place for their respective groups, as well as a place where members could meet for coffee, conversation and fellowship.
