Healing can be described as a long, looping process with many ups and downs, and Pathway Society CEO Gary Montrezza is aiming to illustrate that to raise money for his nonprofit organization with an Everest ride fundraiser on May 21.<\/p>\n
The Pathway Society has offered substance abuse and counseling services in Santa Clara County since 1968. They provide addiction treatment through recovery residences and outpatient facilities. They serve about 1,600 to 1,700 people per year, Montrezza said. The nonprofit operates two outpatient facilities in Morgan Hill and Santa Clara, as well as a men\u2019s facility for in-patient residential treatment and detoxification in downtown San Jose.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur business model is people,\u201d said Montrezza. \u201cWe\u2019re in the business of emotions. We\u2019re in the business of addiction and helping people improve their lives and provide a social net that we can be proud of in one of the richest countries in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
The organization has typically relied on government funds to provide services and has never had a fundraiser. This year, Pathways is hosting its first \u201crecovery ride\u201d fundraiser<\/a> to raise money for a second detoxification facility next to the first one in downtown San Jose. Montrezza said the expansion has been in the works since 2023, when the county board of supervisors declared a behavioral health treatment emergency.<\/p>\n The Pathway Society was awarded a $6.5 million state grant to build the new facility, a three-story building with 30 beds, which would effectively double its capacity. Montrezza said they were considering reserving one floor for women following the closure of the Mariposa Lodge, which housed the county\u2019s only accessible detoxification and residential treatment center exclusively for women, according to a Change.org petition<\/a>.<\/p>\n However, their plans were impacted by budget cuts at the county and federal levels as a result of the county\u2019s structural deficit<\/a> and the passage of HR1<\/a>. The grant only covers construction, but the Pathway Society needs to raise extra money to pay for the medical staff and furnishings for the rooms. Montrezza said that they\u2019ve lost almost $350,000, resulting in the closure of a few recovery homes. They also sought to consolidate services at their downtown San Jose facility and held off on hiring three new employees, but no jobs were lost.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019ll just be less capacity for people to have safe housing when they are going to our out-patient programs, because it runs hand-in-hand,\u201d Montrezza said.<\/p>\n To raise money and awareness for people who struggling with substance abuse and recovery, Montrezza will be doing an \u201cEverest ride,\u201d which is when a cyclist climbs the equivalent of Mount Everest\u2013around 29,000 feet\u2013in one attempt by repeating a hill climb segment until the altitude of Mount Everest is attained. Just over 30,000 cyclists have completed an Everest ride.<\/p>\n \u201cI was looking for a way that symbolized the struggle that people in recovery and treatment face every day,\u201d said Montrezza. \u201cThe analogy of a mountain and sliding down a mountain or the suffering that goes into that is something that was compelling to me.\u201d<\/p>\n Montrezza will be starting his bike ride at the Los Gatos Civic Center at 110 E. Main St. in at midnight, and he will ride his route until around 5:30 p.m. He said he chose a 1.8-mile loop that cuts through Testarossa Winery because he wanted his bike ride to be publicly visible. He will have to complete this loop 108 times. To help with the mental challenge of this feat, Montrezza will be biking portions of the ride with Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen, former KTVU journalist Frank Somerville and Los Gatos Mayor Rob Moore, according to a press release.<\/p>\n Moore said\u00a0 he got involved in the ride because he supports Montrezza\u2019s efforts to raise awareness about substance use recovery as someone who had seen many people close to him struggle with drugs and alcohol and enter recovery programs.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that leaders\u2026being able to be very outward in sharing about the courage of someone to recover from substance use disorders is amazing,\u201d Moore said. \u201cI\u2019m excited to help the Pathway Society in their mission to spread awareness and help more people on their journey of recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n Raul Soto, a Pathway Society substance abuse counselor, will also be biking with Montrezza. He was previously a client with the nonprofit, recovering from methamphetamine addiction after his last arrest in 2013 for possession of narcotics. He credits Pathways\u2019 professional, compassionate and kind support for helping him achieve sobriety. After 11 years in recovery, Soto applied to work with Pathways as an assistant manager to give back to the nonprofit.<\/p>\n One of the biggest donors of the event is Valley Services, a site services contractor that provides portable toilets, temporary fencing and other services for events and construction and demolition projects. Valley Services director of operations Eldrich Evaristo will be biking with Montrezza for some of the ride. He said his company aligns with Pathway Society\u2019s mission of giving people second chances. Many of the people they employed had come from \u201cunfavorable backgrounds,\u201d like formerly incarcerated people and recovering drug addicts and alcoholics.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we were approached by the Pathway Society to potentially support the ride and just the organization in general, it definitely hit home to us,\u201d Evaristo said. \u201cWe believe people should have the resources to give themselves a second chance in order to work and better their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n Several businesses also showed their support for Pathway Society, including the Los Gatos Coffee Roasting Company and Purple Onion. Pizza My Heart will be donating 30% of its profits from sales on May 21 to the nonprofit. Montrezza invites visitors to come watch his ride or join him and donate to the Pathway Society. There will also be a celebratory party on the civic center lawn with live music and food from 5:30-8 p.m.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been really enlightening for me to hear people wanting to get involved, because addiction touches everyone,\u201d Montrezza said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t discriminate against a person\u2026so I\u2019m really grateful for all the support that\u2019s been occurring.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Healing can be described as a long, looping process with many ups and downs, and Pathway Society CEO…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320211,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[2780,184,16752,7,8,4978,2781,1570,1280,181,23,190,2093,100,8558,88,90,89,196,198,200],"class_list":["post-320210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-addiction","tag-bay-area","tag-budgets","tag-california","tag-california-news","tag-downtown-san-jose","tag-drugs","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-los-gatos","tag-mental-health","tag-news","tag-pharmaceuticals","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-san-martin","tag-santa-clara-county","tag-south-bay"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}