Painted on the wall at The Friendship Club on Rosina Street is a message: "Welcome home." To Mary Stramel, it is.

"This place has saved so many lives," Stramel said emotionally. "Literally."

On a sunny day right after yet another February snowstorm, Stramel hugged Friendship Club manager Prasoon Wilson because it was her anniversary — eight years sober, she said. The active volunteer often makes dozens of homemade breakfast burritos for members.

The Friendship Club, a nonprofit corporation, is a home for organizations serving the "entire recovery community," said manager Prasoon Wilson. "We're not anonymous, but everybody who comes to us is."

The center is home for organizations like Alcoholics Anonymous, Overeaters Anonymous and Al-ATeen. Meetings are held seven days a week, and the club even hosts Spanish language-only meetings.

Wilson and the volunteer board of directors of The Friendship Club are engaged in a full community outreach effort to let the community know who they are and what they do.

"We just want people to know there is somewhere that people can come," Stramel said. "They have safety and anonymity, and they can participate."

"It's a sanctuary," Wilson added. "We want people to know you can come here and have sober fellowship."

A second home

Although Wilson has only been with the Friendship Club for more than two years, he is fascinated by the history of the organization because "I'm always curious how these things get started," Wilson said.

The Friendship Club recently celebrated 31 years. Wilson said in the mid-1970s, Santa Fe didn't have a lot of Alcoholics Anonymous meetings in place. There was one very active group in Tesuque that many people in Santa Fe would travel to.

A wife to one of the traveling AA members started The Friendship Club and seven people who used to ride to Tesuque started to meet in an old warehouse. Wilson noted that they fondly called themselves the "unstable seven."

While the "unstable seven" would meet, their families would get together and communicate their struggles.

"(The warehouse) stayed open all day," Wilson noted. The club moved two more times before finding a home at 1915 Rosina St. The club was incorporated as a nonprofit and changed its bylaws to include not only AA, but for "any program pertaining to recovery," Wilson explained. "We have eight different kinds of groups that meet here."

Wilson said the club hosts about 60 meetings a week, which means that more than 300 people are helped.

And many people do truly make it their second home.

"We have people who have been around for a while," Wilson said. "We call them the 'old-timers.' "

'Landlord' to programs

One common misconception about the Friendship Club is that it's synonymous with Alcoholics Anonymous, or that the club itself is a recovery organization, but the reality, Wilson said, is that the club serves as a "landlord" to many 12-step recovery programs.

"The groups pay us rent for the room," Wilson said, noting that the rent is very inexpensive. It costs $12 per hour to rent the meeting rooms, or 80 percent what the groups collect in the donation basket.

"These groups are self-sufficient through their own contributions," Wilson said. The Friendship Club stays afloat through rent, coffee bar sales, book store sales, donations from the community and grants.

"We're the only bookstore in Northern New Mexico where people can come and buy their 12-step literature," Wilson said.

As far as the coffee bar, it doesn't really rake in the bucks, but it does serve a special purpose. At one of The Friendship Club's previous locations they used to give coffee away for free but then started a coffee bar. Wilson enjoys telling the story.

"In that time, it was the late '70s, coffee prices shot up dramatically and there was a huge group consensus held about whether to continue to give coffee for free or to charge 25 cents," Wilson said. The group agreed to charge, and the coffee bar was born. Now, although it's still primarily coffee, the group offers snacks like cookies, chips, beef jerky and soda pop.

"It's more of a service thing, we're not that sophisticated," Wilson said when asked about the profit. The coffee bar is manned by a few of the volunteers, who Wilson said provide more than 75 hours of volunteer time.

"This place wouldn't be open if not for the volunteers and the hours they put into this place," Wilson said proudly. "It's the great unknown story of this place. I think any volunteer organization would give their left arm to have 75 hours of consistent volunteer time."

Reaching out

The Friendship Club is looking to forge relationships with other organizations and agencies that serve the recovery community.

"A lot of people don't know that it's here," Stramel said, noting that the club would like to host events for the community. "We want to let the community know there are facilities here that have nothing to do with 12-step programs."

Wilson noted that the Friendship Club held a sober New Year's Eve dance and that the group rents out the big conference room for events. In fact, the room had recently been rented out for a birthday party.

"If there is no alcohol involved, anybody can rent our space," Wilson said.

The club has also started yoga classes Monday through Saturday that are open to the community. The classes are $5 a session and go toward the club's operating budget.

"We both need the outreach and to get the word out," Wilson said. "People need to know about us."

To volunteer, donate or learn more about the Friendship Club, call Wilson at 920-2126.

Contact Ana Maria Trujillo at 986-3084 or atrujillo@sfnewmexican.com.