Using a recently derived simple formula the van der Waals ground state potential curves of alkaline-earth-helium pairs BeHe, MgHe, CaHe, SrHe, and BaHe have been calculated. The repulsive potential is based on exchange energies calculated from the surface integral method applied to multielectron systems. With the exception of the long-range dispersion coefficients all the input parameters are atomic properties of the free atoms. The agreement with the available potentials from the literature is reasonable.