Steve Brine joined he Dean of Winchester Cathedral, the Very Reverend Catherine Ogle and Mayor of Winchester, Cllr Vivien Achwal for the opening of the Darkness into Light exhibition, which celebrates 75 years of Alcoholics Anonymous in Great Britain.
From 3rd March 2022 until 27th March 2022, AA will host an exhibition at the GET Free Book Shop in The Brooks Shopping Centre.
AA began in Ohio, USA in 1935. Twelve years later, the first AA meeting in Great Britain was held at London’s Dorchester Hotel, hosted by Grace O, a visiting member of Alcoholics Anonymous from the USA. The meeting was held in Room 202 of the hotel at 8pm on Monday 31st March 1947. Since that time AA has grown and now hosts over 4,500 meetings per week across Great Britain.
The Darkness into Light exhibition explores AA’s beginnings in Great Britain through to the thriving fellowship that serves the community today.
For the first time, AA Great Britain will open its archive to share images, recordings, literature and artifacts to illustrate AA’s journey to provide free and confidential support to anyone who is worried about their drinking.
Ellie, Regional Public Information Liaison Officer, Alcoholics Anonymous said; "Darkness into Light is a celebration of the strength and courage of alcoholics across Great Britain over the past 75 years. AA started from a meeting between two seemingly hopeless alcoholics in 1935. Today AA has approximately 3 million members worldwide and the success of AA in Great Britain has helped many thousands of people to recover from alcoholism.
We hope that this exhibition will give an understanding of our history and how AA continues to offer support to anyone who suffers from alcoholism."
Steve Brine MP said; “We were all so humbled to be invited to this event and struck by the fact there is an AA meeting every single day somewhere in Winchester. This organisation is truly a beacon of light and continues to do so much to help us battle one of the major addictions which blights so many lives.”
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