Santa Clarita Valley Central Office
By Judy F. (Info@aascv.org)
If you haven’t heard, Santa Clarita Valley Central Office has a new home. Yes, we recently moved to a new facility, light, airy and easy to find. The best part, no stairs.
If the archives are accurate, our Central Office was originally established in 2005 by members who felt our small community could support its own “resource center/clearinghouse” for AA literature and other 12 step services. Twenty one years later Central Office is still supplying those same necessary services in Santa Clarita.
How grateful we are to our Ruether Avenue landlord who raised our rent only once in all those years. Who allowed us to spruce up the office when we had the resources to do it and keep our own hours for coming and going.
After our due diligence in searching for a new home, we have settled on renting space at the Rafters Group. With much discussion in our monthly Intergroup Meetings and a final group conscience, a decision was made to approach the Rafters with our idea to move Central Office across town.
Just waiting for our signage, we are all moved in, set up and pushing Big Books out the door faster than we can keep them in stock. This certainly would not have been possible if not for the ladies who showed up and helped us pack to the men who showed up that Saturday with trucks and trailers in tow to handle the physical move. Two and half hours later we were completely out of Ruether and into our new digs.
As we approach the month of November and start talking about GRATITUDE MONTH I get to share my gratitude for my fellow members who allow me the privilege of being a trusted servant at Central Office. I love the opportunity to answer the phone and share with someone who has been sentenced to attend those “AA Classes” that we call “meetings” and I suggest they attend in person rather than zoom. I love the calls from parents who just don’t know what to do with “that kid” who is living on the street and they don’t understand because they weren’t raised to live like that. What a privilege it is to unlock that door on any given morning, get a cup of coffee and Thank God for another day.
As Bill W. wrote: “Some people think God made life just for happiness, but I find myself unable to share that view. I think he made life for growth and that he permits pain as the touchstone of it all. Happiness – at the very least, satisfaction – is a byproduct of really trying to grow. And seasons of real joy are but the occasional byproducts of the process. Which, in eternity, will be the eventual fulfillment. Meantime, we seem to be pilgrims on a road – one which you and I are completely confident leads in the arms of God.”
Seasons of Real Joy AA Grapevine Reprinted July 1993