Jes Golding creates community through

By Abigail Blonigen

Alife completely free of alcohol was something Jes Golding couldn’t even imagine a couple years ago.

“I tell people that I fell in love with alcohol,” she said. “It was my constant for so long. It was my medication. It took away the pain. It was my fun. It was my chill pill. Until it wasn’t anymore.”

Golding had her last drink on March 21, 2019, after abusing alcohol since she was a teenager. Knowing she would need a strong community and support system to aid in her recovery, she founded Sober Duluth.

“Sober Duluth was founded on the need for connection and community free of substances in The Northland,” Golding said.

The group began as an Instagram and Facebook page. Golding created graphics, memes and used hashtags to reach a wider audience. Through social media and word- of-mouth, Sober Duluth quickly evolved from casual sober meetups to occasional events to consistent pop-up dry bars.

“I’d meet up with people and we’d talk about wellness and being sober and Lake Superior and would form this connection that is hard to find in early sobriety,” she said.

The road to recovery for Golding has been a long one. She was born in Jacksonville, Florida, and was introduced to alcohol and drugs at a young age. By 16, Golding was using both alcohol and intravenous drugs as a means of coping with underlying mental health symptoms.

After a few rounds of treatment, Golding stopped using needles, but continued abusing other drugs until moving to Southern California in 2006. After less than a year there, Golding was homeless and “using vodka as a means of survival.”

Fortunately, Golding’s family intervened, and she returned to Jacksonville. Back home, she started a career in mental health and human services, graduated from a technical college, and went through a short marriage and divorce.

“I was still getting drunk most nights out of the week, but I wasn’t doing drugs anymore, so that was progress for me,” she said.

In 2012, Golding moved to Superior, Wisconsin, with her partner at the time. She quickly fell in love with the Twin Ports, the “big small-town” feel, and the drinking culture. Golding continued drinking heavily for about a year, but began to crave something different. She started moderating her alcohol intake, established medical care, and began taking better care of her mental health.

“The more healthy I got, the more awake I became, and the life I had been living wasn’t the life I wanted anymore,” she said.

After nearly a year of sobriety, a series of difficult life changes ensued, and Golding found herself once again using alcohol to cope.

“Instead of taking the hint that I had reached rockbottom and needed help, I went full-speed ahead and in August of 2017 almost had a stroke due to alcohol consumption,” she said.

Golding spent the year and a half after this incident going back and forth between Duluth and Jacksonville, trying to find herself and get healthy.

“Sometimes that meant abstinence and sometimes that meant moderation,” she said. “I didn’t know what I was working towards, because I couldn’t imagine a life completely free of alcohol.”

Finally, in 2019, Golding committed to sobriety, packed up her SUV, and drove the 26 hours from Jacksonville to Duluth for a fresh start. Because remnants of her “old life” remained in the Northland, she was motivated to create a