There are lots of opportunities for students at the Colorado Center for the Blind. Some are part of the formal program, others staff and students develop out of their own interests and contacts. This fall activities like motorcycle rides and rock climbing were mixed in with graduations and the National Federation of the Blind of Colorado Convention, to name a few.
Pictured above: On September 9 students had a chance to go for a motorcycle ride into the mountains. Members of the Sentinels Motorcycle Club loaded up students and took a tour as far as Indian Hills before returning for lunch at Wrigley’s Chicago Bar & Grill in golden. We thank Dishon Spears for organizing this each year.
In the pictures below, Brian and Jodi furthered their scuba diving adventures on October 7 at the Downtown Denver Aquarium. This is a non-required activity instigated by Brian, a certified scuba diver before he became blind. It was Jodi’s second dive ever. You can read more about it in our previous post on scuba diving
There’s a great picture of Brad from above as he works his way up the rock face west of Golden. All students make two rock climbing trips in the fall, and there are also more in the spring. These are a required and long-standing part of our unique training program. What a thrill, what a feeling of confidence when you make it to the top! We also had our martial arts class, and 6 students received their orange belts this fall.
Construction continues out front. In fact, the parking lot is finished and is lovely, if that could ever be said about a parking lot! Just a few more weeks should do it, as there are a couple of more concrete pours to do and landscaping to finish up. This photo is from an earlier, warmer phase of the construction!
Everyone attended the National federation of the Blind Convention October 25 to 28 in Lone Tree. As part of the program, we had a multigenerational panel talk about the Colorado Center for the Blind – we turned 30 years old this year! Ty Gillespie and his mom Laura are shown below. Ty first came to us at age 5 to take part in Confidence Camp for Kids. He’s 13 now, and nobody’s worried about his confidence anymore!
Finally, we’ve had a number of our students graduate this fall, Loren shown below, but also Danielle, Brian (scuba diving), Tad, Carlene and Nick. Naturally, as these veteran students move on, we bring in new ones, so the faces have changed as quickly as the autumn leaves!
