On April 6th, 1944, Dave A. wrote to the New York office of Alcoholics Anonymous asking for guidelines on organizing an A.A. Group. This was the start of our fellowship in Orlando and our Central Florida area. Dave had relocated from Jacksonville and Daytona Beach where A.A. meetings were “plentiful” at the time, but little or no activity was taking place in the Orlando area. Although some meetings were taking place in Winter Garden, no groups had been registered with New York at that time. Dave placed an ad in the Orlando Morning Sentinel announcing the place and time for the first A.A. meeting. It was held at the Lamar Hotel, located at 409 West Central Boulevard. Before the first meeting there were, “laying out plans – with four prospects in sight.” By 1946, the group had its first home – the second floor of an office building at 27 East Central Avenue. There were 30 steep steps to climb. All early members remember how difficult it was to ascend those steps to their first meeting. The joke at the time was, “if you made those steps, you would probably make the program.” The A.A.s in Winter Garden, a Dave and Ernie Y, joined Dave A. to form the first group, known today as the Central Group. On Saturday night at that time, the first speakers meeting was started with each of the early members expected to take a turn speaking . Last month, the Central Group will celebrated the 72nd birthday of A.A. in central Florida. The message of recovery from the founding members in 1944 is still clear today, 70 years later: when one alcoholic shares his experience, strength, and hope with another alcoholic, recovery begins. Today, all these years later, the Central Group will still on many days have standing room only at their meetings. A vast network of groups has blossomed from the original idea of Dave A. and those alcoholics from Winter Garden who wanted to share the blessings of recovery with anyone who wants it and is willing to work the steps of recovery. We owe a great debt to Dave A. and the founding members of the Central Group for the work they did in the 1940s, but we also recognize that Dave and his friends would have been comforted to know that we still pass it on today. Dave A. passed away in October, 1986, with more than 41 years of sobriety.
—Contributed by Vic L., Decisions Group/PIO, Winter Springs, FL