Founder of McAlister Institute celebrates 60 years of sobriety

At 84 years old, Jeanne McAlister is beautiful, lively, and healthy, not at all the picture of an alcoholic that she once was. On Nov. 23, she celebrated 60 years of sobriety with hundreds of people who have come to know and love her.

At 84 years old, Jeanne McAlister is beautiful, lively, and healthy, not at all the picture of an alcoholic that she once was. On Nov. 23, she celebrated 60 years of sobriety with hundreds of people who have come to know and love her.

This lovely lady is the founder and CEO of the McAlister Institute, which provides high-quality, low-cost substance abuse treatment. The Institute began right here in El Cajon in 1977. Through her commitment to helping people in recovery, McAlister has brought hope and joy to more than 7,000 people who have been knocked down by substance abuse, just as she was until she sobered up back in 1956.

There is no better way to find out what a person is like and who she really is than to listen to the people who know her tell their own stories about her. Not a dry eye was in the place as Marisa Varond told her Grandmother McAlister how much she respected and adored her grandmother.

“When I was younger, I used to take it for granted when I’d be out with my grandmother, and no matter where we were, even in the shoe department at Nordstrom’s, someone would come up and thank her for the way she helped them.

“I have immense gratitude for my grandma’s sobriety—21,900 days in a row. She has had so much clean time that I never have known her as an addict,” Varond said.

Mike Franz, board member of McAlister Institute, met McAlister in 1994 while he was in detox. “I was unable to get funding by county for their detox program, so I am deeply grateful for McAlister.

“The Board thanks you for your warmth, Jeanne, and for the light in you that transforms us when we are around you,” Franz said.

Monica Delaney-Terrones and Robert Casas, both of whom had entered the McAlister program back in the 90s after being released from prison, said that McAlister gave them very practical help in keeping sober.

“She taught me the value of a smile. She also taught me how to dress more appropriately at work. And she helped me develop a whole new set of skills,” said Delaney-Terrones, who is an alcohol and drug addiction counselor.

Robert Casas, now owner of a landscaping business, also had the highest of praises for McAlister. “She always told me to do my best, and —– the rest,” Casas said, laughing. “Jeanne has always had a wonderful sense of humor and she puts me at ease.”

McAlister had a difficult time keeping her eyes dry as Steve Hubbard, CFO of McAlister Institute, presented her with a cake. McAlister blew the sparkler candles out and gave Hubbard a hug.

“It’s the hardest job to give you this cake because it really is not enough for all that you have done for me and thousands of other people,” Hubbard told McAlister.

Hubbard said that he has worked with McAlister for 26 years. “When I stand beside her, I feel I’m standing in the shadow of greatness.

“And yet, she gives all the credit to God,” Hubbard said to all the people listening. 

McAlister also has a great sense of humor, Hubbard said. He told the story of when he had been in the detox program for 3 days and was sent to McAlister’s office to meet and talk with her. He had been sitting at her desk for ten minutes when finally she opened her purse and pulled out a wad of cash.

“She told me that she did not think that I would steal, but she did not want to set me up so she removed the money,” Hubbard said, laughing. “With Jeanne, you always know where you are. She never plays games with you.”

When it was time for McAlister to take the microphone, she said that she had a very important message that she wanted to get out.

“Recovery works. Sixty years of sobriety shows that recovery tools do work. When I walked in, I was broken and desperate,” said McAlister, adding that the most important thing in her life after recovery is her family.  

“I’m so grateful that my grandchildren never saw me drunk. They have seen me a little high from sugar once in a while, though,” she said. Everyone at the celebration laughed along with her.

Another message that McAlister wants to get out to the public is for everyone to realize how very important they are.

“All of us need to talk about recovery. People still think that alcoholism is a hopeless disease, but we need to show them through our own lives that recovery is possible. I do thank God for my recovery, and I hope that how I have lived my life has been my gift back to God,” she said. 

McAlister said that she has been able to keep faithful to her sobriety largely because she keeps the memory fresh of what it was like when she was drinking. “Alcohol had ravaged my body to the point where I could not move. I made plans that I never kept.

“I felt like I was in a tunnel and the opening was getting smaller and I wouldn’t be able to get out. I wanted to get clean for my daughter,” she said.

After McAlister had sobered up by hanging out at the Alano Club and drinking orange juice to keep at bay the shakes and nausea, she began regular attendance of AA meetings. A lady named Marty had paved the way for women in the organization. But there were some obstacles for younger women in AA, namely that the men always believed that the women were too young to have become alcoholics. It was in women-only groups that McAlister found the help she needed. She also had great encouragement in AA from a special mentor friend named Rosa B.

It was those strong ladies in AA who motivated McAlister to start her own recovery program. She opened the first detox program before San Diego County ever did. McAlister Institute was also the first of its kind in the nation to accept women.

It is little wonder then, that her Varond had this to say about her grandmother: “So many letters we get at the McAlister Institute say that Jeanne is like a mother to them.”

For more information about McAlister Institute and the programs it offers, go to www.mcalisterinc.org.