Take Charge with Confidence and Self-Reliance

Category: Cane Travel

  • Turning the Tables: CCB Role Reversal Day 2022

    by

    Dan Burke

    A standing woman gestures to the room of seated fellow students as she talks

    Students from every continent and every epoch imagine, even if only idly, of someday, somehow turning the tables on their teachers. Likely they don’t realize until they have done it, that their teachers also may see such a reversal as an opportunity to return the torment.

    That’s partly the story of Role Reversal Day 2022, held on Friday, February 4. Hand it to the leadership of the CCB Student Association for organizing carefully and thoroughly, putting staff into groups and planning the schedule, even reviewing lesson plans from each ”teacher of the day.” This is the group, remember, that collected necessary items for the NICU babies when Avista Adventist Hospital was forced to evacuate during the December, 30 Marshall Fire in Boulder County.… Read the rest “Turning the Tables: CCB Role Reversal Day 2022”

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  • Seniors Are in Charge and In-person This Week at CCB!

    by

    Dan Burke

    a blind instructor talks with his student, a senior woman as they walk with white canes along a residential street

    a blind instructor talks with his student, a senior woman as they walk with white canes along a residential street
    Dishon and Olive on the return leg of a travel lesson near the center. Seniors in Charge this year was blessed with lovely fall days.

    For the first time in two years, our week-long Seniors in Charge is live and in-person at the Colorado Center for the Blind! These four dynamic and intrepid older blind folks have been waiting since spring of 2020 to get five full days of blindness training in Braille, technology, cane travel and kitchen skills, and they are determined to get the most out of this opportunity to spend quality time with our Senior staff! Duncan, Chris, Stephanie and Dishon are not disappointing them with long, and at times, intensive training every day.… Read the rest “Seniors Are in Charge and In-person This Week at CCB!”

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  • “Katie Goes to Blind School” #ColoradoGives

    by

    Dan Burke

    Colorado Gives Day Logo 12.8.20

    Good evening!

    This is the last blast for Colorado Gives Day. Promise.

    There’s still time to donate to the Colorado Center for the Blind at
    the Colorado Gives pageColorado Gives Day Logo 12.8.20

    And as your reward for clicking on this post, you get to meet Katie. She’s a career social worker whose degenerative eye condition interrupted her professional employment, so she came for training. For the past three months she’s been posting regularly on her Face Book page about her journey at CCB. She calls this “Katie Goes to Blind School.” Here’s a portion of a post about learning to travel with a long white cane, and the other things she is learning along the way.… Read the rest ““Katie Goes to Blind School” #ColoradoGives”

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  • Blindness Skills & Confidence More Necessary Than Ever #ColoradoGives

    by

    Dan Burke

    A woman wearing sleepshades and backpack walks uphill on a narrow sidewalk with her white cane

    The skills of independence for our blind students, and indeed for our staff, are more critical in these difficult times than ever before. Even though the world has changed we all at the Colorado Center are still able to work with our students so that they will gain belief in themselves and be able to move forward with confidence and self-reliance!

    Support us on Colorado Gives Day this Tuesday, December 8. And you can schedule a donation tonight if you like so that it will be counted on Tuesday.

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  • Blindness training goals delayed by social distancing? Check out the new Breaking Blind Podcast

    by

    Dan Burke

    Corey and David talk about traffic sounds before making a street crossing

    Corey and David talk about traffic sounds before making a street crossing
    You know, this pandemic shutdown has been going on for a minute. Especially if you are a student at the Colorado Center for the Blind, or someone waiting to come, or someone newly blind and trying to figure out how to do the simplest things you used to do now that you’re blind, let alone how you can live the life you want. Our students’ had their programs interrupted, some only a week or two from graduating. Prospective students who’ve been talking with Executive Director Julie Deden for months found their start dates paused indefinitely.

    That’s what makes the Breaking Blind Podcast so timely and, for many, so essential.… Read the rest “Blindness training goals delayed by social distancing? Check out the new Breaking Blind Podcast”

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  • Happy Holidays! Thanks to All of You, Lives Change at the Colorado Center for the Blind

    by

    Dan Burke

    Three young students stand in front of a medical vehicle, all wearing Santa hats

    Three young students stand in front of a medical vehicle, all wearing Santa hats
    Caption: Cristian, Shyanne and Kelly stand in front of the medical vehicle at South Suburban Fire and Rescue Station #12 on December 16. They had just delivered a box of holiday cookies and treats baked by students to on-duty fire fighters. In turn, fire fighters showed students one of the trucks and the medical vehicle. The three students assisted in delivering treats to Littleton Police, where they met Chief Doug Stephens, as well as other officials. It is an annual tradition, our way of thanking the community that is the home of the Colorado center for the Blind.

    We’re celebrating the holidays, and we hope you are too!… Read the rest “Happy Holidays! Thanks to All of You, Lives Change at the Colorado Center for the Blind”

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  • Meet Adama, a Disability-rights Champion from Sierra Leone

    by

    Dan Burke

    Adama sitting at the table in the travel lobby with her phone and her slate and stylus.

    For the past three weeks, we’ve been delighted to have Adama Conteh as a special student at the Colorado Center for the Blind. Adama is from Sierra Leone, a country of about 6 million in West Africa. She has been in the U.S. under the sponsorship of Hope International, which has provided Adama with training at their headquarters in Tennessee, and transportation to Colorado to attend the Center for these three weeks.

    You don’t have to talk to Adama more than a couple of minutes to understand that she is a disability rights and women’s rights advocate at her core.… Read the rest “Meet Adama, a Disability-rights Champion from Sierra Leone”

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  • We’re open today, and sharks are on for tomorrow! The #BombCyclone has blown on by!

    by

    Dan Burke

    Two sets of blue gloved hands exploring a shark from either side of the table

    It was a relatively calm morning after yesterday’s Bomb Cyclone, with 8 to 12 inches of snow and extreme winds blowing the flakes sideways and into drifts. Admittedly we had to skate our way into the Center before eight this morning, climbing over ice boulders thrown onto the sidewalk along Prince Street by snowplows, but we are here. We are grateful not to be among the nearly 80,000 customers in the Metro area without power this morning.

    And we are on for tomorrow’s shark dissection with Arapahoe Community College’s Terry Harrison. We’re plowing and digging and de-icing our way out in plenty of time for that!… Read the rest “We’re open today, and sharks are on for tomorrow! The #BombCyclone has blown on by!”

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  • It’s snowing in Littleton Today, & all our students, including our 5 new ones, made the trek to CCB! #ShareLittleton

    by

    Dan Burke

    A snow covered fox serves as a goose deterrent

    We expect no less. But it just goes to show that blind people are not afraid to travel in the snow, not even the new ones who come from such warmer states as South Carolina, Georgia and Arizona. Independence doesn’t depend on the weather!

    Pictured above is one of our hopeful goose-deterrants. We’re still holding out for a group shot of snow angels. No takers, especially after warnings about goose poop in the snow.

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  • The First Week of Summer Means Lots of Firsts

    by

    Dan Burke

    Amber using a shovel in the garden for the 1st time with Annette and Barb

    Amber turns dirt over in the garden with Annette and Master Gardener Barb

    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 years pumpkin and zucchini hills.… Read the rest “The First Week of Summer Means Lots of Firsts”

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