[ up close ] B Y R I C H P O L L A C K
Tony Allerton
Long before Delray became a recovery nexus, this compassionate nonprofit director has been taking all the right steps
T
o the more than 750 people in recovery who walk through the doors of the Crossroads Club every day, Tony Allerton may just be the nameless “old guy in the little office.” Few visitors from out of state know that Allerton has been a fixture at the club since the first meeting was held 35 years ago. Many have no idea that it was Allerton—in recovery longer than quite a few have been alive—who piloted the renovations to an old city storage building in 2006 to create the club’s most recent home, which now hosts about 160 meetings a week. Still others have no idea that Allerton is both the executive director of the nonprofit organization that runs the club and the general manager of the 7,200-square-foot facility with a half-million-dollar annual budget. In a place that hosts Alcoholics Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous and even Overeaters Anonymous in meeting rooms where last names are never mentioned, Tony Allerton prefers to be anonymous. “There’s no title on my door, there’s no parking space, and that’s just the way I like it,” he says. Out in the community, however, it’s a different story. A resident of Delray since the late 1950s, Allerton has become synonymous with the Crossroads Club and vice versa. Just a few months away from his 90th birthday, Allerton remains a passionate advocate for the club, helping people to understand its role while soliciting sponsorships and other donations. “I have no shame asking for money for Crossroads,” he says. “It has a good reputation.” Founded by four men in recovery, Crossroads Club is neither a treatment center nor a sober home. It is simply a place that provides meeting space for legitimate 12-step groups that follow the process pioneered by Alcoholics Anonymous. “Those other organizations are in the life-saving business,” Allerton says. “We’re in the life maintenance business.” Crossroads, born when cocaine addiction was first surfacing, hosts a wide variety of programs, which separated it from other clubs that served mostly recovering alcoholics. Allerton is not a founder of the club, but he was at the first meeting Crossroads held—on Christmas Eve 1982, at its first of four locations—
and never left. “I’ve been involved in the operation of the Crossroads Club in one way or another for 35 years,” he says. In addition to being a key figure in the day-to day-operations—he’s there working five mornings a week serving as “chief cook and bottle washer”— Allerton has served on the board of the organization that runs Crossroads, including as president, and on the board of the CRC Recovery Foundation, Inc., a second nonprofit that owns the property off Lake Ida Road on which the club sits. He remains a member of the foundation board. “Tony is a guiding light at Crossroads,” says Larry Eaton, who chairs the board of the foundation. “Everyone looks up to him. He’s a real beacon of hope for others.” Along with his work at Crossroads, Allerton has been an active contributor to the community, serving on the board of the Delray Beach Playhouse, where he is a past president, and on the boards of Wayside House and the Drug Abuse Foundation of Palm Beach County. He has also been past chair of the Delray Beach Drug Task Force and was president of the Delray Beach Rotary Club. “I’m a big believer in community service,” he says. Growing up in Connecticut in the 1930s and ’40s, Allerton first came to Delray Beach in 1938 on a vacation with his parents. During that trip he met a local youngster on the beach who told him it didn’t snow here. “I went back and told my mother that ‘when I get to be a big boy, I’m going to live in Delray Beach,’” he recalls. Those who know Allerton well say it’s his passion for helping others that sets him apart—along with a surprisingly dry wit and a contagious laugh. “He has a wonderful spark of mischievousness and a genuine desire to see everyone who comes to Crossroads succeed,” says Steve English, Crossroads’ assistant executive director. “He’s a nucleus for us, an inspiration who gives life to other people’s ideas and activities.” For his part, Allerton says he is proud to be a part of Crossroads, which has served an estimated 7 million people since its beginnings. “The fact that the good Lord has allowed me to be an integral part of the recovery effort in Delray Beach is a blessing,” he says. “It’s given me an opportunity to see people who are struggling with addiction and watch them be reborn.”
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delray beach magazine
upclose 0618.indd 44
AARON BRISTOL
“There’s no title on my door, there’s no parking space, and that’s just the way I like it.”
june/july/august 2018
4/26/18 4:09 PM