June 2017

We’re proud of our senior programs and how they have changed the lives of seniors who have lost vision and the people who love them. We’re excited about how those programs continue to grow – from the residential Seniors in Charge (twice a year), to four support groups (one in Spanish), to ever-expanding opportunities to provide outreach services.

And so we’re proud of our new Senior Program video, made with filmmaker and long-time collaborator Djuna “DJ” Zupancic. The video doesn’t talk about all the program details as much as it endeavors to tell what those programs and services have meant to five seniors in particular.

Embodied in these seniors and in their stories are the values that drive our Senior Services – indeed everything we do at CCB – skills that build belief in ourselves, a community that supports us, hope where there was uncertainty and maybe just a skosh of defiance!

Thanks to DJ for her highly professional and creative work. She gets us!

It’s happening here tomorrow starting at 10 a.m. Thanks to our partners at WE Fit Wellness and United States Association of Blind Athletes (USABA). Contributing will be Eye-Cycle, Achilles Denver, and members of the Colorado Storm Beep Baseball team.

And at lunch there will be a keynote address from current CCB student Chaz Davis, a member of the 2016 US Paralympic team! Check out the agenda below.

#NFChallenge Olympic Day Agenda

10:00–10:10 – Welcome
Meeting Room

10:10–10:55 – Breakout Session 1
Running – lobby sitting area
Tandem Cycling – picnic tables
Beep Baseball – side yard
Power Lifting – art room
Goalball – gym

11:10–11:55 – Breakout Session 2
Judo – Travel Lobby
Tandem Cycling – picnic tables
Beep Baseball – side yard
Power Lifting – art room
Goalball – gym

11:55–1:00 – Lunch
Meeting Room
Keynote Address: Chaz Davis, 2016 Paralympian

There wasn’t time to sit still till lunch was served, but none were inclined to do so at Saturday’s #NFChallenge Olympic Day 2017. There were just too many things to try out – beep baseball demonstration with the Colorado Storm, judo and power-lifting, goal ball and tandem bicycling with Eye-Cycle! Everybody got to take a turn at three or four of these activities, and a few even took a second bike ride or got into a couple of actual goal ball matches!

But participants were able to sit still long enough to listen to Paralympic runner Chaz Davis talk about how he went from “overweight and out-of-shape” to being the current record-holder in the marathon for blind and visually impaired runners.

And then it was back to another round of fun – and fitness – activities!

About 90 people collected in the meeting room on a 95-degree day to share a little summer society. It was CCB’s annual Ice Cream Social, ranging from Confidence Camp kids as young as 6 to Older Blind Programs participants who declined to reveal their ages, and all of the staff and students of our middle school, high school and college-bound students and Independence Training Program.

What they all had in common was blindness and the determination and desire to take charge with confidence, and today that meant taking charge of a drumstick or ice cream bar!

Swimming, paddling, rock climbing – every afternoon there’s something fun going on at Confidence Camp. In the morning – the learning looks just as fun! Learning to use the microwave, making lunch … and always traveling with white canes and taking the light rail and the bus somewhere fun … like horseback riding today!

That’s right, five of our students stepped out into the atmosphere last Saturday with Mile High Skydiving in Longmont. Bill, a long-time CCB volunteer and driver for the expedition, made a jump as well.

The students organized this themselves, made the plans and recruited the volunteers. So, here’s to Shane, Zack and Zach, Ashley, Lindsey  – and Bill! You got to love the confidence and their willingness to challenge themselves. Sure, they were strapped to experienced jump-masters, but by comparison, crossing Santa Fe Drive is cake!

That’s right, Summer 2017 students are all arriving today by planes, … well automobiles at least. Their counselors have been here for nearly two weeks, getting classrooms and apartments ready, creating lesson plans and getting in touch with the students – even finding out what them might like for dinner tonight! It’s the start of eight dynamic weeksof challenge and growth because, as we always say, this isn’t a camp, it’s a PROGRAM!

Last summer, after eight weeks, after the final meal cooked by the summer students for family and the etire Center, after the talent show and passing out of certificates, and as the packing and apartment cleaning started, Summer 2016 students and staff took a few moments to reflect on what the summer meant to them.

  The Colorado Center for the Blind received word in May that we had been recertified by the National Blindness Certification Board for another three years, and that we received the first-ever score of 100 percent following the onsite review. That news was reported last week to the CCB Board of Directors!

Our distinguished Board of Directors met here at the Center on June 2 and 3 to hear how things are going, to discuss both the immediate and the more distant future of programs and growth at the Center.

By 9 Monday morning the commotion in the lobby was reaching a crescendo. Fifteen Confidence Campers were arriving for the first of three weeks of learning blindness skills, having fun and yes – becoming more confident as small blind people! The commotion arose from parents dropping the campers off, connecting or reconnecting with their teachers and the other kids.

Tryna Boyd Pratt has directed Confidence Camp for 16 years running, and it wasn’t long before she was assigning three of the older kids to do the grocery shopping. Of course, for kids between the ages of 5 and 11, a teacher goes with them to the supermarket, but their job was to get a shoppers’ assistant and get all the items on the list themselves – a real grown-up skill! By the way, that list was dictated to them and written in Braille!

Here’s to three more weeks of learning, fun, growth and CONFIDENCE!

We want to call your attention to this excellent article by Catherine Kudlick, a 2000 CCB grad, The Price of Disability Denial

It was published in the New York Times on May 24 as part of its Disability series. The Times says: “Disability is a weekly series of essays, art and opinion by and about people living with disabilities.”

Kudlick is a Professor of History at San Francisco State.

David did it – he completed his Support Drop today with his Travel Instructor Daniel! Congrats David!