August 2018

This is Chaz Davis’ final week as a Social Work Intern at the Center, and Director Julie Deden marked the occasion with a short ceremony and presentation of a thank-you card, followed by cookies.

“I joined the blind community four years ago, though not as a blind person,” Chaz said. “I was a social work intern at the Colorado Center for the Blind, and I learned so much. I learned that blind people are just people. They do everything that sighted people do, and they do it well. I also learned that I wanted to be a part of this community.”

Staff and students of the Colorado Center for the Blind, as well as members of the NFB of Denver Chapter once again marched in the Littleton Western Welcome Week Parade on August 18. From Eileen, 92, to our favorite toddlers, Mason and Jackson with their parents, and all five of the Batron kids it was a family adventure as always!

Thanks to Kirk for use of his selfie.

“I’d never been in a parade before,” he said later.

Doing something you’d never done before – even before becoming blind – that makes it worthwhile, because pushing beyond what others (and we) expect of us as blind people is the point!

He was in the neighborhood, so he stopped by for a visit. Eric Duffy, a long-time member of the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), spoke to our Philosophy class recently when he came to visit the Center.

Duffy, who was visiting his brother and family in Colorado Springs, previously served as the President of the NFB of Ohio and, most recently, directed the Access Technology department at the National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute (NFBJI) in Baltimore.

That’s right, as part of our parking lot construction project, power will be cut to the building on Friday, August 24 so that the new, entirely underground electricity cables can be linked up to the building and Xcel Energy’s trunk line. That means more than just no lights, which isn’t a big deal to us anyway. It also means no computers, fire safety alarm or telephones. In fact, our phones will just ring and ring because the answering and voice mail system run on a computer in the building.

Oh yeah, it also means no WiFi! Ask yourself, what can you get done without WiFi? Even drinking a cup of coffee feels weird without WiFi.

As a result of the power shutdown, our Seniors won’t be meeting this Friday.