Since March, the Kelly Club has been attracting new members and helping them find answers.
The Talkington Foundation purchased their McCord and Valley Street location earlier this year from Crowder College. It’s a place for people to meet and hosts 12 different 12-step groups each week. The numbers are growing, said Don Larson, Talkington Foundation president.
The Kelly Club location provides a meeting place for support groups including Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Al-Anon, Nar-Anon and they hope to start an Al-Ateen group later.
The Foundation is named for “Uncle Bob,” who was active in recovery groups for many years in Kansas and Missouri. The club is named after “Kelly,” who died of acute alcoholism. She knew she needed to quit, but couldn’t, Larson said.
“It’s both ends of the spectrum,” he said. “The first one was very, very successful, which was Robert Talkington, and the lady that just couldn’t understand what she really had to do. She couldn’t change her perception.”
The sign in front of the building has meaning too – it’s a coffee pot, which may alert others to their meeting place, but for those who came together to create the foundation it is very special.
“That was Uncle Bob’s coffee pot,” Larson said. “We got a picture of it and that coffee pot is so symbolic. A lot of recovering alcoholics drink a
SEE GROUP, PAGE 8GROUP
FROM PAGE 1
lot of coffee and smoke a lot of cigarettes.”
The building does not allow smoking or pets, but the group is focused on helping families. They have speakers in and June 27 they plan a pig roast.
Larson – a recovering alcoholic himself – said the reason they needed a facility was so people would know where to go. Alcoholism, he says, is a mental illness, but there is hope.
“It’s swept under the rug,” Larson said. “For years it’s been swept under the rug. It’s an illness.
“Alcoholism I’ve heard related to a disease of perception – I love that terminology. Perception is what we think at the time and alcohol – after it pounds in the human mind so long – the mind changes and you become addicted and you come back into civilization and you have to reprogram and everything and that’s where programs like Alcoholics Anonymous come along.”
Talkington helped Larson years ago and many of the board members knew him. They are a passionate group held together by something even Larson can’t quite put his finger on.
