November 2018

This year, Susan says she’s thankful for her husband as always, but also for the Colorado Center for the Blind. She’s been attending Senior support groups at the Center twice a week for only a month.

“My rock” is how she describes her husband and his support for her. “When I get home, he’s going to ask me about all that happened at the Center today.”

Susan began to lose vision to Macular Degeneration in early 2016, and was declared legally blind last June. She is right in the middle of learning to live with her vision loss, and knows that process is not all smiles and triumphs. Along with that, she has been recovering from a series of surgeries for a completely different medical issue.

“But when I come in the door here, I feel happy,” she says,” no matter how hard a day I’m having.”

Our students really dig in at the Colorado Center for the Blind. We don’t simply teach rote skills, but nurture the confidence and curiosity in our students to continue to problem-solve and learn new skills. That’s how they learn to “Take charge with confidence” so they can live their lives in pursuit of their dreams instead of always following a pre-planned, memorized route. If you only follow memorized routes, you’ll only go to where you’ve already been.

Please support our students and our programs on Colorado Gives Day, Tuesday, Dec. 4!

It may be the best yet! This year’s “Shared Visions” tactile art exhibit at the Colorado Gallery of the Arts at Arapahoe Community College (ACC) featured even more tactile painting pieces, a series of “boxes” from another class that were in every instance surprising, as well as an installation of an idyllic natural setting, complete with a trickling spring.

It’s the fifth year that we’ve collaborated with Arapahoe Community College’s Art & Design Center, and the fourth year our students had some of their own work on display.

The best news is that it’s open till Monday, December 3! In fact, this Friday our Senior Program will be making a pilgrimage to see it.

A year-and-a-half ago in Kansas City, Loren was on his family’s front porch after church when he was struck in the face by a bullet. He’d been caught in the crossfire of a shooting that had nothing to do with him, but his life changed forever. About to graduate from high school, Loren had been talking with a recruiter and was eager to join the marines. After extensive medical care, managing to finish high school and some initial blindness rehabilitation, Loren arrived at the center in late January for nine months of our intensive, comprehensive training.

Are you interested in learning about advocacy and legislation?

Would you like to meet Colorado’s U.S. Senators and Representatives?

Wouldn’t it be fun to travel to our nation’s Capital with dynamic blind leaders?

Take advantage of this great opportunity! Apply for a scholarship offered by the Colorado Center for the blind youth program.

Event: Washington Seminar, an event of the National Federation of the blind

Dates: Sunday January 27 to Wednesday January 30, 2019

Scholarship includes: airfare to Washington DC, lodging at the Capitol Holiday Inn and a food allowance. Chaperones from the Colorado Center for the Blind will be with each student.

Ho! Ho! Ho! Don’t miss our Holiday Party on Saturday, Dec. 15, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Colorado Center for the Blind! CCB’s FAST program is teaming up once again with the NFB of Denver Chapter for this event, which will include gift-wrapping for the kids, holiday arts and crafts, and a visit from our blind Santa. He may have gifts for the kids, too!

We’ll serve lunch and cider and perhaps sing a few rounds of carols before the day is done! So, make sure it’s on your Holiday Calendar!

Thanksgiving is of course very much a harvest celebration. So it is appropriate that we invited our Master Gardeners to the center for a little thank-you celebration Tuesday morning. After all, our collaboration with them in our Legacy Garden each summer results in a wonderful harvest of tomatoes, peppers, herbs and squashes, to name a few, but also in a harvest of opportunity and confidence for our students.

While many of the students who worked in the garden as recently as September have graduated, there were many individual thank-yous and some great comments for the gardeners.

Saturday, November 10 was a full day – full of learning and, by about 1:30, we were all just full. Twenty-four came for our FAST (Fun Activities and Skills Training) Thanksgiving meal. A mix of blind youth, parents, teachers, staff and volunteers (and one little brother) made an early Thanksgiving meal, substituting chickens for a turkey.

Everybody got a hand in the preparations and the feast that followed! Four parents also took the opportunity to practice skills under sleepshades, doing everything from slicing carrots to taking pies from the oven.

Yes, we’re full of thanks for all who came, for the teenagers hanging out by the piano after it was all put away, and for the leftovers, naturally!

Colorado Gives Day is Tuesday, December 4, and we’re in for the mega-million-dollar statewide day of giving, sponsored by First Bank and the Community First Foundation! Your gift to us on CoGivesDay2018 ensures that we can continue to offer programs to youth, seniors and working-age adults that challenge, impart skills and infuse the confidence in themselves our students can draw on throughout the rest of their lives!

Sure, we’ll take your gifts any time, but there are some advantages to both of us if you contribute on December 4:

Thirteen is our lucky number when you look at the Rogue’s Gallery in this photo. These are thirteen volunteers who contribute so much to the Colorado Center for the Blind and to our students. Yet they humbly protest that they get back more than they give. We suppose that’s their call, but we’re telling you they give a lot.

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.