{"id":279,"date":"2026-05-23T13:38:54","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T13:38:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=279"},"modified":"2026-05-23T13:38:54","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T13:38:54","slug":"alum-rock-counseling-center-award-has-special-meaning-for-blanca-alvarado","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=279","title":{"rendered":"Alum Rock Counseling Center award has special meaning for Blanca Alvarado"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Blanca Alvarado is a legendary community leader in Santa Clara County, so she has received a number of honors, plaques and trophies over the years. But receiving the lifetime achievement award Friday from the Alum Rock Counseling Center had a personal meaning for her.<\/p>\n

Read more Missing actor Stewart McLean is believed to have been killed<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Alum Rock Counseling Center holds a special place in my heart,\u201d said Alvarado, who was the first Latina on the San Jose City Council and the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors and will turn 95 in July.<\/p>\n

The organization was founded in 1974 by George Doub, who had been Alvarado\u2019s parish priest at Most Holy Trinity Church in East San Jose. Parishoners there had petitioned the diocese for a Spanish-language Mass, and Doub \u2014 who had previously ministered in Mexico and later left the priesthood \u2014 was appointed to do that at Most Holy Trinity.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis memory lingers in my heart because he was a man of love, of integrity, of community pride, and he especially wanted to improve the lives of children, which is why he founded the Alum Rock Counseling Center,\u201d Alvarado told the crowd of more than 200 people gathered at the Mexican Heritage Plaza.<\/p>\n

Today, the agency serves more than 4,500 young people and their families not only through counseling but through programs such as life skills development, youth mentoring, trauma recovery and parent training.<\/p>\n

David Mineta, who came on last year as CEO of the Alum Rock Counseling Center, said both Alvarado and his father Norman Mineta charted courses and opened doors for others in Santa Clara County. He said he remembered Alvarado speaking at the memorial service held for his father \u2014 a former San Jose mayor, congressman and U.S. Secretary of Transportation \u2014 in 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing she said about dad was that he was everybody\u2019s BFF,\u201d Mineta said. \u201cActually, Blanca is everybody\u2019s BFF, too. And she has been working for this community in her neighborhood, from her house, her entire life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the guests at the lunch were Santa Clara County Supervisors Sylvia Arenas and Betty Duong, San Jose City Councilmembers David Cohen and Peter Ortiz and past ARCC Executive Directors Steve Eckert and Patricia Chiapellone. Angela Tirado, the \u201cVoice of San Jose,\u201d sang Mariah Carey\u2019s \u201cHero\u201d \u2014 and even got the crowd to sing the chorus \u2014 to open the program.<\/p>\n

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Dean McCully, a retired Cisco engineer who serves on ARCC\u2019s advisory board, also was honored as this year\u2019s Super Role Model. Cohen, who has worked with McCully on projects in Alviso, noted that McCully has been honored several times recently because of his work with various youth-focused nonprofits and service groups including Sea Scouts and Young Eagles Chapter 62.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know how he has the time for all the different things he does, but his retirement has to been to our benefit,\u201d Cohen said.<\/p>\n

Read more Pittsburg\u2019s next police chief sworn in at change-of-command ceremony<\/a><\/p>\n

MUSICAL NOTES:<\/strong> Symphony San Jose was in the pink at its Spring for the Symphony gala May 16 at the California Theatre downtown. Shades of the color were everywhere in the decor around the theater, and Symphony Executive and Artistic Director Robert Massey really stood out in the crowd with his hot pink tuxedo jacket.<\/p>\n

The dinner and auction certainly seemed to provide a nice boost to the symphony\u2019s donations this year, with a conducting gig at this December\u2019s \u201cHoliday Spectacular\u201d being sold three times at $6,000 apiece. Tenor Ben Gulley, the evening\u2019s featured performer, raised $10,000 for a performance for 10 guests at the Monte Sereno home of Diane Brandenburg. But the amazing part was when he raised an extra $15,000 by holding a the final note of an aria he sang at the gala an additional second for every $1,000 pledged.<\/p>\n

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CREATIVE CONNECTIONS:<\/strong> Ryan Neale, who is graduating from UCLA next month, has served as an inspiration to many on the Southern California campus. He\u2019s one of 35 graduating students being awarded the Chancellor\u2019s Service Award after starting a social group for neurodivergent students at UCLA and helping relaunch the school\u2019s neurodivergent empowerment team.<\/p>\n

It was quite a turnaround for Neale, who started his college career trying so hard to hide his autism from his peers and teachers that he made himself sick.<\/p>\n

\u201cMuch of my fear around autism came not from objective limitations or concrete rejection from my peers but from exposure to representations of autism that didn\u2019t capture my reality,\u201d he said last weekend at an event celebrating neurodivergent youth storytellers and artists, sponsored by the Rotary Club of San Jose and held at the Goodwill Opportunity Center in San Jose.<\/p>\n

The initiative is co-chaired by College of Creative Arts founder DeAnna Pusai and CORE Companies founder David Neale, Ryan\u2019s grandfather, who was inspired to provide seed funding for the fledgling program. Awards were presented to Arjun Agrawal, Alaja Baladich, Ashleigh Dong and Jason Macaranas, and honorable mentions given to Aster Schweiger, G Wood, Steven Arreola Mu\u00f1oz and Shane Tarkington.<\/p>\n

WHAT A RIDE:<\/strong> May is officially Bike Month, but few of us could take that challenge to heart like Pathway Society CEO Gary Montrezza. On Thursday, he took part in the Recovery Ride, riding his bike along a route in Los Gatos more than 100 times \u2014 equaling 29,029 feet, the height of Mt. Everest.<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t just do it for the bragging rights, either. His goal was to raise $40,000 to $50,000 for Pathway\u2019s Withdrawal Management Center, a detox facility that is set to open in downtown San Jose later this summer. The facility\u2019s construction was paid for by grants, but Pathway is raising money to make sure it has other essentials like medical equipment, beds and supplies for programs.<\/p>\n

Montrezza had supporters riding with him at parts of the challenge, including Los Gatos Mayor Rob Moore; Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen; Max Weber, a University College Dublin currently at San Jose State as part of a San Jose-Dublin Sister City scholar program; and Mike Salinas, founder of \u201cchampion sponsor\u201d Valley Services. You can see more about the ride or make a donation pathwaysociety.org\/recovery-ride.<\/p>\n

Read more Endorsement: Contra Costa community college bond measure well thought out<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The former Santa Clara County supervisor received a lifetime achievement award Friday at Alum Rock Counseling Center’s fundraising lunch at the Mexican Heritage Plaza.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":278,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news"],"yoast_head":"\nAlum Rock Counseling Center award has special meaning for Blanca Alvarado - Next City Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=279\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Alum Rock Counseling Center award has special meaning for Blanca Alvarado - 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