A Brief History of The Union Street Group By December 2007 the Recovery Community in Brunswick's South End was growing by leaps and bounds, and the idea of finding a new meeting location kept coming up. We searched high and low in the downtown area as well as nearby neighborhoods. Finally we settled on the idea of approaching the historic First Presbyterian Church on Union Street, where we knew other community groups were holding meetings on a regular basis. Palmer F. agreed to take the action and successfully negotiated a small conference room for our use twice a week, Monday & Thursday nights. A flyer was circulated announcing the new meeting and location, and on the first Monday night in January, 2008, just before the 7pm meeting started, we were amazed to realize that we had already outgrown the space! We began meeting upstairs, dragging more and more little wooden chairs from youth classrooms down the hall to join our bigger and bigger meeting circle. The second week in January we handed out our first white chip at the Union Street Group. AA members from St. Simons as well as Jekyll Island came out to support our meetings and helped spread the word about the new 7pm open meetings at Union Street. Within just a few weeks, we outgrew that room too. In March we moved to a bigger room on the 2nd floor formerly used for storage, so once we had organized this new space for our meetings we could actually leave our chairs and literature in place. We were finally home! The Monday & Thursday night meetings continued to grow throughout the Spring of 2008. We then heard that a morning and a lunchtime meeting were looking for a new home. Could we accommodate them too? The church "Fathers" were consulted and they agreed to let us rehab the roomy but neglected church basement to house our growing meeting schedule. Being below sea level, 2 massive sump pumps had been installed in the basement closets to keep the room from flooding during heavy rains. But the pumps could not prevent mold and moisture damage to the painted brick walls or the painted concrete floor. The basement space was plenty big enough, but not yet hospitable! It would take a lot of work to make the room habitable. Undaunted, painter Tony M. steped up to the plate with a plan. He and his crew plus many group members spent a weekend scraping, priming and painting the walls. The transformation from dark blue peeling paint to fresh bright cream-colored walls was miraculous! Meg made curtains and bought table cloths, the supply closet was set up, a Big Book & literature bookshelf organized, Steps & Traditions hung on the wall. The bulletin board, coffee pot table and framed AA slogans completed the necessities, and we were in business. Beginning in June 2008, we had established 3 meetings a day, 6 days a week! A GSR and Treasurer were elected, we had a Group Number and were officially called The Union Street Group. In addition to the night meetings, we support a 7am meeting and a "Nooner" at 11:30am. All our meetings are open and non-smoking! Monday and Thursday are Discussion Meetings, Tuesday is the Women's Meeting, Wednesday is the Big Book Study, Friday is a Speaker Meeting, and Saturday is a "Young People's Meeting" (of course, everyone is welcome) which starts at 8pm so we don't have to choose between Bowling and AA! We were amazed...in just 6 months a new hub of recovery in Brunswick's South End Historic District was thriving far beyond what any human powers could have achieved. As January 2009 rolled around with Union Street Group's 1 Year Anniversary, we all celebrated as a 1 year chip was picked up by that newcomer who had held onto the group's first white chip since January 2008, and the circle was complete. "God could, and would, if He were sought"! ^ Top Union Street Group First Presbyterian Church 1105 Union Street Brunswick, GA 31520