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Thank You for Our Best Colorado Gives Day, EVER! #Gratitude
This December 7 you surpassed previous years with your support for the Colorado Center for the Blind and our programs for blind people of all ages, making 2021 one of the best we’ve been lucky enough to experience on Colorado Gives Day. And we’ve been part of it from the very beginning.
So, we are more grateful than ever for the incredible support of our community in one of the more difficult years any of us may have experienced.
Every year except 2020, we’ve held a big Thanksgiving meal in November. Students prepare for weeks in advance in their Home Management class, baking pumpkin and pecan pies, yeast rolls, turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, dressing and cranberries, plus some other dishes.… Read the rest “Thank You for Our Best Colorado Gives Day, EVER! #Gratitude”
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Our Blindness Training Is Just the Beginning – Donate on Colorado Gives Day!
The blindness training we offer, and the confidence it builds in our blind students, is not an end, but a means. Ryan is an IT project manager. Erin is an insurance underwriter. Garrett is finishing law school, Charis is pursuing her degree in chemistry. Just this year, Evan’s internship at the Audio Information Network of Colorado (AINC) turned into a permanent job. Carolina realized that she loves working with children and has an internship at a preschool. Cragar returned to work on his degree in Atmospheric Science with new technology and Braille skills that brought in the grades he has always known he is capable of.… Read the rest “Our Blindness Training Is Just the Beginning – Donate on Colorado Gives Day!”
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Our Staff Make the Difference: Donate on Tuesday, Colorado Gives Day!
It’s our job at the Colorado Center for the Blind to believe in our students, often well-before they begin to believe in themselves.
“We see you struggle when you first come for training, ” Assistive Technology Instructor Brett Boyer often says, “but we also have the privilege of watching you grow … and it’s always amazing.”
It is a privilege, and a joy. But it’s not a passive observation, because all of our instructors teach, challenge, push a little, pull a little, and encourage all along the way to give our students the opportunity to learn the things that make them increasingly independent and to develop the resilience and ingenuity to continue to learn and grow after the student moves on.… Read the rest “Our Staff Make the Difference: Donate on Tuesday, Colorado Gives Day!”
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‘I am not my blindness’: What the blind community wishes you knew – from USA TODAY
This article appeared in USA Today yesterday, November 17. It features our graduate Erin Daley, of whom we are naturally quite proud. In the article, Erin mentions that she loves to travel and will be visiting the Baltic countries. Well, she’s on her way right now!
If you’re a sighted person, you likely have misconceptions about blind people. Time to educate yourselves.
Check out this story on usatoday.com -
Challenging the Rock with Denver Climbing Co. #ChallengeRec
Late this spring we determined to bring challenge recreation back for our students. We set it aside for over a year for reasons of social distancing, etc. First, We arranged to go whitewater rafting in Idaho Springs, where we’d gone for almost ten years, and it was great to be back on Clear Creek with some old friends!
Meanwhile, martin Becerrra-Miranda was tasked with finding a new company to guide our Independence Training Program students on rock climbing excursions.
“I think these guys might be the ones,” Martin said after talking with Dan Krug of Denver Climbing Co. “They just get it.”… Read the rest “Challenging the Rock with Denver Climbing Co. #ChallengeRec”
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It’s Colorado Giving Season – Schedule a Donation for Dec. 7!
Nothing tempers the desire of our students to find the tools and the belief in themselves that will sustain them in their quest to live lives of independence and success!
And so, still cautious, still wearing masks indoors all day, the Colorado Center for the Blind carries on with the training and the programs that will give our blind students those tools – in the kitchen, at the (computer) keyboard, reading electronic Braille displays and traveling the Denver Metro area on RTD. Indeed, these are the tools upon which to build for a lifetime!
From our Senior Staff working both in person and virtually with older Coloradans experiencing blindness for the first time, to our collaborations providing innovative educational support and just fun activities for blind youth, The Colorado Center for the Blind continues to make a difference in the lives of blind people!… Read the rest “It’s Colorado Giving Season – Schedule a Donation for Dec. 7!”
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First Prize in Parade!
The certificate has arrived! Of course, the winners of the 2021 Littleton Western Welcome Week Grand Parade were announced back in August, but now that we have that piece of paper we can’t help but crow a little!
And so we won first prize in the Group/School category! Hooray!
Was it the noisemakers? Was it the matching T-shirts? Was it the goofy object Gene wore on his head? Those probably all helped, but it was more likely the excitement and the sense of release as we shook our tamborines and maracas and chanted, “Who are we? CCB!” as we marched the parade route.… Read the rest “First Prize in Parade!”
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Parents’ Seminar Coming UP: FOLLOW THE IEP ROAD! Are you ready?
- When:
- October 30th, 2:30 to 4:30 PM
- Where :
- Denver Marriott South at Park Meadows and everywhere
- 10345 Park Meadows Drive, Lone Tree, CO 80124
Dear Families and TVIs,
Please join us for a discussion about the journeys you are taking with your children. This event will take place during the National Federation of the Blind of Colorado State Convention. We are excited to host a panel of professionals discussing the items to be considered on the journey, beginning with birth and continuing through adulthood.
Panelists:
- Tanni Anthony, Ph.D.
- Director, Access, Learning and Literacy, Exceptional Student Services, Colorado Department of Education Consultant on Blindness/Visual Impairment
- Carlton Anne Cook Walker
- Attorney at Law; Educational Consultant and Advocate, Blindness Education and Advocacy Resources (BEAR), Teacher of Students with Blindness/Low Vision; President, National Organization of Parents of Blind Children (NOPBC)
- Michele Reed, MS
- COMS Certified Orientation and Mobility Specialist, Blind and Low Vision Unit, Colorado Department of Labor and Employment
- Michelle Chacon
- Certified Teacher of the Visually Impaired, Certified Orientation and Mobility Specialist
- Amira Lucas
- Parent of a blind child, Licensed Professional Counselor , Adams
12 Board of Education candidate elect
Moderator:
- Anahit LaBarre
- Certified Teacher of Visually Impaired, Director of Youth Services at the Colorado Center for the Blind
Please join us in person or virtually, as our panelists discuss and answer your questions about the following topics of importance to parents of blind kids:
• Early childhood and transitioning from pre-school into a public school setting
• Accommodations versus modifications; Specially-designed instruction
• IEP goals and what should they look like
• Transitioning into middle and high school
• Post-secondary planning and outcomes
• Parent input and parent roles
• What happens if the IEP team does not agree as to what the child needs on his/her IEP
• What is WIOA, and what does it mean for my teenager?… Read the rest “Parents’ Seminar Coming UP: FOLLOW THE IEP ROAD! Are you ready?” -
Etiquette Day at CCB
It’s Etiquette Day in Home Management, and one of our newest students decided to dress up for the occasion. Sure, his attire is not strictly “black-tie” but definitely a cut or two above our normal business casual.
For Etiquette Day our Home Management teachers, Delfina and Stefanie walk students through everything from proper place settings to the techniques of maintaining polite manners when you can’t see your food.
Dan H took this as an opportunity to set himself apart. Every item from the brown felt hat, to the suit coat from Korea, to the tiny tie and the rings and beads, have some significance related to important people in his life – his mother and father, his sisters and his fiancée.
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CCB graduate wins blind division in Boston Marathon! @blackkidrunning
They love Chaz Davis in his hometown of Grafton, Mass. But we are just as proud of him here in Littleton, Colo. at the Colorado Center for the Blind!
Chaz, a 2016 Paralympian in Rio and a 2017 graduate of CCB, won the Boston Marathon’s visually impaired division on October 11. It was the 125th Boston Marathon, but the first year that this division was available for blind runners to register in. Previous blind marathoners in Boston just … well, ran.
Blind runners run with a guide to whom they are tethered, meaning that the guide and blind runner must be carefully matched as far as speed and endurance, and marathon runners may change guides during a race.… Read the rest “CCB graduate wins blind division in Boston Marathon! @blackkidrunning”