June 2018

Editor’s Note: This letter has been widely distributed this week, but we decided to risk repeating ourselves by posting it here because we very much hope you will join us for the NFB of Colorado Comcast 6 Dot Dash on Sunday. It’s going to be a lot of fun!

Dear Family and Friends,

The NFB of Kansas President dropped by for a quick visit and tour this afternoon. Tom Page and his friend Nicole are in the area with Tom’s string band, the Haymakers. They played in Colorado Springs last night and will be in Denver at Cervantes’ Other Side tonight. Though a number of Kansas students have come to CCB for training over the years, this was Tom’s first chance to see the Center.

“The energy is amazing,” he said.

Tom and Nicole bumped into another Kansan this afternoon while visiting. Luther Fuller is part of the Summer for Success (College Prep) Program this summer. He’s just graduated from high school and is off to college in the fall to major in Music and Computer Science on the side.

Yesterday we gathered 106 people into the meeting room for an ice cream social. It’s an event we hold every June because of course it’s summer and it’s hot and so ice cream tastes great! But we also do it to mark how exciting June can be with our usual Independence Training Students and staff in the building with our Seniors, who are joined by the Confidence Camp kids and the older summer students in the Middle School, High School and College Prep programs.

And since this is the year that the Colorado Center for the Blind turns 30, it’s a moment to reflect on how far the Center has come, and how far our many students have gone since leaving.

As Julie Deden pointed out, Diane McGeorge started the Center in 1988 with just five initial students.

“It’s amazing to think that we started with five students,” said Assistant Director Brent Batron, “and today we have six programs running in the building at the same time!”

That was one of the first lessons of the first day of summer for Confidence Camp kids this morning.

“If someone asks you what your backpack looks like, what are you going to tell them?” the lesson continued.

Yes, Monday began with learning for the 10 5 to 12-year-olds. It went on from there, including making lunches, and there will be plenty more lessons in independence and fun over the next two weeks. Lots of fun too – their day ended with a trip to the pool for a swim. Now that’s summer!

And then there were the 23 teenagers in our Earn & Learn and College Prep programs in their first day of classes. they will be with us for 8 weeks, including a trip to the National Federation of the Blind 2018 Convention in Orlando!

Dear Friends –

We want to bring your attention to an exciting event taking place here at the Colorado Center for the Blind on Sunday, June 24. At least, it will start and finish at the Center, because it is the national Federation of the Blind of Colorado’s first 6 Dot Dash 5K, and we invite you to register and walk, run or roll! Funds raised go to the NFB of Colorado, the organization that founded the Colorado Center for the Blind and whose fund-raising kept the doors of the CCB open for many years afterward.

The practical application of the philosophy we teach here at the Center is the philosophy of the National Federation of the Blind, whose tag line is “Blindness is not what holds you back. You can live the life you want.”

No matter what the calendar says, it’s the first week of summer. The temps are in the 90s, the garden is being planted and summer staff are shadowing their ITP staff counterparts. Friday 25 teenagers (summer students) begin arriving and on Monday the elementary Confidence Camp kids start too.

So here’s another first or two. Above, Amber uses a spade for the first time out in the garden. When asked if she’d dug with a shovel before she promptly answered, “I’m about to.” And then she proceeded to do it. In the process she and classmate Annette planted this year’s pumpkin and zucchini hills.