“May your hope always outweigh your doubt”

— Todd Snider, “Like a Force of Nature”

I like opening these letters with a line from a song. Takes the pressure off me to be profound right out of the gate. That line above, from the great (Oregonian) Todd Snider, who we lost in November of 2025, is followed in Todd’s song “Like a Force of Nature” by the not-quite-as-inspirational counterpoint/punchline, “until this old world finally punches you out.” 

The year between July 1, 2025 and June 30, 2026 was (again) one of challenges and changes. Everything you’ve heard from us repeatedly throughout the last several years remains true. More people in Oregon are suffering from substance use and mental health disorders than ever before, and there are still not nearly enough resources to provide suffering people with the support they need. Oregon’s overdose death rate is 31% higher than the national average. Organizations like ours are still facing significant budget reductions and anxiety about what lies ahead. This is all true. I see evidence of it all around me each day as I walk from my home in Northwest Portland to the Club. I know many of you do, too. 

And yet...

The Alano Club is as vibrant and bustling as I can remember it being at any point in my decade here. Thousands of people come through our doors each week to find community, support, and a path to recovery that suits their own individual needs. I am heartened every day by our community and our staff. Last fall, when some Oregonians could not access their SNAP benefits, the Alano Club staff pooled our own resources and created a makeshift food pantry in the Café to help ensure that no one in our community went without. That mentality — What else can we do? How can we help? —  has been the core of this organization and community since its earliest days, nearly eighty years ago. It is in everything we do, from the meetings that fill the Club with fellowship to every workshop, class, program, and event on our calendar. To spend my days working alongside these incredible people, bearing witness to the power of this incredible community — that’s the antidote to cynicism. It has carried me along not just in my work, but in my recovery, when little else could. 

There really is no other organization like ours anywhere in the world. We wouldn’t be doing our jobs, though, if we weren’t constantly asking ourselves those questions: What else can we do? How can we help? Whether that is a new program, a pop-up food pantry, or something as seemingly cosmetic as new carpeting and furniture, there is always more we could do. It’s one of the challenges of the work, to be sure, but it’s also a privilege to be in the position of knowing there’s more work to be done and trying our damnedest to do it. It’s a responsibility each and all of us here take very seriously. 

There is more work ahead in the coming year but, for a moment, it’s important to pause and reflect on the year past and the work we did. I am so proud and grateful to have been a part of it.

May your hope always outweigh your doubt,

Kasey Anderson
Executive Director