A man with a troubled look on his face sits on a bed.
Two other men on chairs are talking and listening intently. They are there to help the drunk on the bed get sober.
It is an image that has become synonymous with Alcoholics Anonymous in the more than half-century since it first appeared in a painting published in an A.A. publication in 1955.
This Founders' Day, Friday through Sunday, that image will be in the hearts of some 12,000 people who converge on Akron to remember the start of Alcoholics Anonymous on June 10, 1935, by Akron physician Dr. Robert Smith, known as Dr. Bob, and Bill Wilson, a New York stockbroker.
Inside the Akron Intergroup Council of Alcoholics Anonymous on North Main Street, the organization that sponsors Founders' Day, is a stained-glass window that is based on the dramatic painting.
The painting originally was called
Came to Believe
and is now known as
Man on the Bed
, said Akron A.A. archivist Gail L.
She said the image is a symbolic depiction of what was a real meeting between Smith and Wilson and Bill Dotson, who was the third person to join A.A., that took place in the summer of 1935, just a few weeks after the founding of A.A.
After that meeting at Akron City Hospital, Gail L. said, Bill Dotson's life was changed.
''He leaves City Hospital on July Fourth a free man and is not to drink again,'' she said.
The stained-glass window was erected in 2001 with funding from volunteers' donations.
William O., 74, of England, in Akron for his 12th Founders' Day, looked at the stained-glass window at the A.A. office, and described what he saw.
On the face of the drunk on the bed, said William, sober for 32 years, he saw ''total desperation.''
But on the faces of the two men who are talking to him — Wilson and Smith — William saw something entirely different.
''Endless hope,'' he said.
This year marks two milestones in the recovery movement.
It marks the 70th anniversary of the first hospital specialty unit to treat alcoholics, established by Sister Mary Ignatia and A.A. co-founder Smith at Akron's St. Thomas Hospital, now part of Summa Health System.
And this year is also the 70th anniversary of the publication of A.A.'s
Big Book
, which has sold nearly 30 million copies since 1939.
A.A. has about 2 million members worldwide who meet in about 115,000 groups. Roughly 1.2 million members in the United States meet in about 54,000 groups.
There are more than 400 weekly meetings in the Akron area, according to a chart on the Akron Intergroup Council's Web site at
http:///www.akronaa.org
.
At 4 p.m. Saturday at E.J. Thomas Performing Arts Hall on the UA campus, Gail L. will talk about the history of the
Big Book
, in which the 12 steps that have become the basis of the A.A. program are outlined and explained.
The speciality alcohol treatment unit at St. Thomas Hospital is known as Ignatia Hall, in honor of Sister Ignatia, the hospital administrator.
This year, The Sobriety Quilt of 100 quilt squares made by Summa Health System employees will be on display in the hospital auditorium.
Also at the hospital is the Sister Ignatia Heritage Center, established in 2006, where historical materials are on display. The center will be open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday through Sunday. Free shuttle service will be available from the University of Akron.
Founders' Day, said Gregg Mervis, vice president and chief operating officer of the Akron/Summit Convention & Visitors Bureau, is a ''significant date on our calender'' in Akron because it draws such a large crowd.
The fact that A.A. was founded in Akron, Mervis said, brings notice to the area because it ''touches so many lives around the world'' and ''was started right here,'' he said.
The Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens Gate Lodge will be open free of charge for Founders' Day. It was inside the building, located at the entrance of Stan Hywet on North Portage Path, that Henrietta Seiberling first introduced Smith and Wilson on Mother's Day 1935.
On Saturday in the Gate Lodge, Hiram College will present 20-minute vignettes of the play
Bill W. and Dr. Bob
every 90 minutes starting at 10:30 a.m.. Each performance is followed by discussion.
The weekend culminates at 7:30 a.m. Sunday with the motorcycle procession from UA to Mount Peace Cemetery on Aqueduct Street in Akron, where Smith and his wife, Annie, are buried. A memorial service, attended by several thousand people, will be held at the grave site.
Registration for Founders' Day takes place at the UA Student Union.
For more information, call 330-253-8181 or go to
http://www.akronaa.org
.
Jim Carney can be reached at 330-996-3576 or
jcarney@thebeaconjournal.com
.
William O. talks about the stained glass window entitled "The Man on the Bed" at the Akron Intergroup Council of Alcoholics Anonymous. The window was inspired from an oil painting by AA memeber Robert M. (Mike Cardew/Akron Beacon Journal)
A man with a troubled look on his face sits on a bed.
Two other men on chairs are talking and listening intently. They are there to help the drunk on the bed get sober.
It is an image that has become synonymous with Alcoholics Anonymous in the more than half-century since it first appeared in a painting published in an A.A. publication in 1955.
This Founders' Day, Friday through Sunday, that image will be in the hearts of some 12,000 people who converge on Akron to remember the start of Alcoholics Anonymous on June 10, 1935, by Akron physician Dr. Robert Smith, known as Dr. Bob, and Bill Wilson, a New York stockbroker.
Inside the Akron Intergroup Council of Alcoholics Anonymous on North Main Street, the organization that sponsors Founders' Day, is a stained-glass window that is based on the dramatic painting.
The painting originally was called
Came to Believe
and is now known as
Man on the Bed
, said Akron A.A. archivist Gail L.
She said the image is a symbolic depiction of what was a real meeting between Smith and Wilson and Bill Dotson, who was the third person to join A.A., that took place in the summer of 1935, just a few weeks after the founding of A.A.
After that meeting at Akron City Hospital, Gail L. said, Bill Dotson's life was changed.
''He leaves City Hospital on July Fourth a free man and is not to drink again,'' she said.
The stained-glass window was erected in 2001 with funding from volunteers' donations.
William O., 74, of England, in Akron for his 12th Founders' Day, looked at the stained-glass window at the A.A. office, and described what he saw.
On the face of the drunk on the bed, said William, sober for 32 years, he saw ''total desperation.''
But on the faces of the two men who are talking to him — Wilson and Smith — William saw something entirely different.
''Endless hope,'' he said.
This year marks two milestones in the recovery movement.
It marks the 70th anniversary of the first hospital specialty unit to treat alcoholics, established by Sister Mary Ignatia and A.A. co-founder Smith at Akron's St. Thomas Hospital, now part of Summa Health System.
And this year is also the 70th anniversary of the publication of A.A.'s
Big Book
, which has sold nearly 30 million copies since 1939.
A.A. has about 2 million members worldwide who meet in about 115,000 groups. Roughly 1.2 million members in the United States meet in about 54,000 groups.
There are more than 400 weekly meetings in the Akron area, according to a chart on the Akron Intergroup Council's Web site at
http:///www.akronaa.org
.
At 4 p.m. Saturday at E.J. Thomas Performing Arts Hall on the UA campus, Gail L. will talk about the history of the
Big Book
, in which the 12 steps that have become the basis of the A.A. program are outlined and explained.
The speciality alcohol treatment unit at St. Thomas Hospital is known as Ignatia Hall, in honor of Sister Ignatia, the hospital administrator.
This year, The Sobriety Quilt of 100 quilt squares made by Summa Health System employees will be on display in the hospital auditorium.
Also at the hospital is the Sister Ignatia Heritage Center, established in 2006, where historical materials are on display. The center will be open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday through Sunday. Free shuttle service will be available from the University of Akron.
Founders' Day, said Gregg Mervis, vice president and chief operating officer of the Akron/Summit Convention & Visitors Bureau, is a ''significant date on our calender'' in Akron because it draws such a large crowd.
The fact that A.A. was founded in Akron, Mervis said, brings notice to the area because it ''touches so many lives around the world'' and ''was started right here,'' he said.
The Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens Gate Lodge will be open free of charge for Founders' Day. It was inside the building, located at the entrance of Stan Hywet on North Portage Path, that Henrietta Seiberling first introduced Smith and Wilson on Mother's Day 1935.
On Saturday in the Gate Lodge, Hiram College will present 20-minute vignettes of the play
Bill W. and Dr. Bob
every 90 minutes starting at 10:30 a.m.. Each performance is followed by discussion.
The weekend culminates at 7:30 a.m. Sunday with the motorcycle procession from UA to Mount Peace Cemetery on Aqueduct Street in Akron, where Smith and his wife, Annie, are buried. A memorial service, attended by several thousand people, will be held at the grave site.
Registration for Founders' Day takes place at the UA Student Union.
For more information, call 330-253-8181 or go to
http://www.akronaa.org
.
Jim Carney can be reached at 330-996-3576 or
jcarney@thebeaconjournal.com
.