In a city famous for the siren song of its many bars and nightlife venues, where liquor and good times flow without restraint, the International Convention of Young People in Alcoholics Anonymous (ICYPAA) offers a sobering change of pace. Coming to Manhattan’s Marriot Marquis–Times Square from August 26-29, ICYPAA attendees– sober alcoholics and drug addicts ranging from their teens through their twenties and beyond–will celebrate sobriety in the belly of the beast.
Three thousand people–representing virtually all fifty states and numerous countries around the world–are expected to attend the 52nd ICYPAA convention. Scheduled events include a sunset boat cruise along the Hudson, a citywide scavenger hunt, a game room, a film festival, karaoke, and DJ'd parties and meetings will go around the clock. Says one conference veteran, “ICYPAA smashed the delusion that I need to be intoxicated to enjoy friendship and to weather the hardships of daily life.”
ICYPAA was formed in 1958 to provide a setting for an annual celebration of sobriety among young people in AA. Held in a different host city each year, the organizations aim is to "carry AA’s message of recovery to alcoholics of all ages.” According to it's website, "the number of young people suffering from alcoholism who turn to AA for help is growing.”
Dave S. from Indianapolis, Indiana, started on the path to recovery just prior to his twenty-first birthday. “In my first AA meeting,” he recounts in the Fellowship’s monthly journal, the Grapevine, “I found hope that I could live a life free of the chaos, fear, and dysfunction of alcoholism. But it was at my first ICYPAA that I came to believe my future could be filled with unlimited possibilities. This belief came from large-scale and very visible evidence – seeing thousands of sober young people together in one place.”
With the explosion of youthful energy these conferences are known for, there’s also a deadly seriousness behind the celebration, revealing why ICYPAA is an important event in the lives of attendees. “I know I would be dead without it,” says a member from California. “It kept me connected to AA at some of the worst times in my life, providing a sense of community and the hope that I could stay sober.”
In a city known for its blackouts–where there are 400 AA groups and 1,200 AA meetings a week to go with all those nightclubs and bars–ICYPAA will provide a powerful jolt of sobriety that won’t be soon forgotten.
