Eastwood House of Recovery

2049 East Michigan Avenue Kalamazoo MI 49048

Community Recovery Center

AA group meetings

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Available Meeting Times

Coffee, soft drinks, water and snacks are available for purchase before every meeting. Proceeds go towards supporting our non-profit mission, to help the alcoholic and addict still suffering.

2049 East Michigan Avenue Kalamazoo MI 49048

Directions

Eastwood House of Recovery offers hope, substance-free fellowship

From a rough-and-tumble biker bar to a haven where rebuilding broken lives is a continuous theme, the turnaround of a cinder block building on East Michigan Avenue is as striking as the bright blue paint that coats its walls.

“A place of destruction has been turned into a house of construction,” says Jim Wickline, 82, a regular visitor to Eastwood House of Recovery. “This is now a homey place where people can come to be safe from the exact kind of temptation and trouble that used to occur right in this same building.”The Eastwood Tavern closed in 2006 after gaining a reputation for attracting visitors who came to drink hard and weren’t afraid to mix it up, if the opportunity arose.

Renovation of the building included some distasteful tasks.

“We cleaned blood off the walls,” said Mike Green, who, along with his wife, Sherry Boland-Green, opened Eastwood House of Recovery. “When you think about what used to go on here compared to what goes on today, it’s kind of amazing.”

Filling a need

“We need a place like this on the east side of town,” said Steve Somers, 24, who celebrated a year of sobriety in January. “I’m unemployed right now, and having too much time on your hands is one of the worst things for someone in recovery.

“But now I have a place to come where I know alcohol won’t be an issue..”

There have been no fights and scarcely an argument during Eastwood’s operations, although voices occasionally rise to welcome friends who amble through the doors. They come to chat, laugh, sip a soft drink or a cup of coffee and talk about their struggles.

Mike Green, 54, acknowledges he was more than a little nervous about the prospects of opening Eastwood House of Recovery. But he has stared down bigger fears.

Green said he has not used drugs or alcohol for 19 years, but before then he spent years drinking and abusing heroin and “almost every drug you can think of.”

He has stage-2 hepatitis C, contracted in his days as an intravenous drug user. He has undergone surgery to unclog heart arteries, and the former truck driver is a diabetic on disability.

“Doctors say I won’t see 60,” he said earlier this week, sitting in Eastwood House among friends, with inspirational messages lining every wall. “I don’t dwell on that too much. Maybe some people in my situation wouldn’t consider opening a place like we have.

“But if it weren’t for people in the recovery community helping me out when I needed it most, I wouldn’t be alive today. This is my way of giving back to people in recovery who need somewhere to go.”

The Greens knew there was a need when they began thinking about opening an alcohol-free club in 2007, and they felt compelled to help. The building was owned by the Geek Group, a nonprofit organization that acquired it and briefly ran youth programs there after Eastwood Tavern closed. The group heard about the Greens and contacted them, asking if they were interested in using the building for their aspiring venture.

“Yeah, I was damned scared,” he said. “I wasn’t sure if people would come. I had never done anything like this before, and I didn’t really know what the reaction would be.”

So far, there are far more people taking advantage of the fellowship at Eastwood House than the Greens anticipated.

“We knew there was a need on this side of town, and we were hoping people would hear about us, but honestly we have been surprised at how quickly people started coming in.”

Support flows in
There has been a steady stream of support from the community — those in recovery, but also many without substance-abuse issues. Wood flooring has been donated, roofing materials and labor were supplied without cost, and Blackbird Billiards opened three-hours early one Sunday to host an Eastwood House fundraiser that brought in $211.

Eastwood’s viability appears secure because of the number of donations from regular visitors and its stable lease with the Geek Group, but money is still needed.

The transformation of the Eastwood building already has been drastic, but Green says the turnaround of lives is where the true drama lies.

“Without help, addicts and alcoholics are either going to die or end up in an institution or prison. That’s just the way it is,” he said. “Places like this can help them become useful members of society instead of statistics or criminals.

“That’s what people in the community should realize. Everybody benefits when alcoholics and addicts stay clean.”

Copyright 2022 – EASTWOOD HOUSE OF RECOVERY, INC.

Registered 501(c)(3) Non Profit EIN 26-1360252