(Editor's Note: We don't blame you for wondering what is up with our summer programs for youth. The coronavirus and the subsequent shutdown orders put us into a scramble, affecting not only our youth programs, but seniors and the Independence Training Program, too. Here's an announcement from our Youth Services Director Martin Becerra-Miranda that should clear things up.)

by Martin Becerra-Miranda

Each spring, as plans for our Summer Youth programming come together, Executive Director Julie Deden eventually exclaims, “This is going to be the best summer program ever!” Her positivity, encouragement, and support have not wavered one bit through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Who?

Blind students of all ages and their families

What?

CCB’s bi-weekly FAST Zoom call

When

Friday, June 5, 2020 at 7:00 pm MDT

Where?

We will hold this meeting on the Zoom Meeting platform

Join the Colorado Center for the Blind this upcoming Friday, June 5, 2020 at 7:00 pm MDT for our bi-weekly FAST (Fun Activities and Skills Training) Zoom meeting. Our last meeting was a Game Night; we played a few rounds of “Trivia” and a couple of other rounds of “Heads Up”. Unsurprisingly, everyone who participated did a great job! We weren’t keeping score but the competitive juices were flowing for sure.

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.

Editor's Note: Here's some news from Youth Director Martin Becerra-Miranda. He's been busy hosting lots of Zoom meetings for our staff and ITP students for the past month. But he's also had time to think about what he wants to do with our FAST (Fun Skills Activities and Training) for youth, and maybe, just maybe, he misses the real energy of working with kids. So we're going virtual with FAST starting this Friday!

Who?

Blind students of all ages and their family members

Where?

This will be a virtual meeting on the Zoom platform

When?

Friday, April 24, 2020 at 7:00 PM

Observing “Social Distancing” guidelines doesn’t have to mean being socially disconnected. The Colorado Center for the Blind FAST program will therefore host a virtual get-together every other Friday evening at 7:00 PM., starting April 24.

(Editor's Note: We will soon post a video demonstrating How blind folks can complete the 2020 Census, featuring our own Martin Becerra-Miranda and Dan Burke. It's great YouTube viewing, but we don't have a trailer. In the meantime then, we're posting some of that information here to complement the video.)

So, let's talk about the 2020 Census. We first posted about this on March 11, the week that Census notices started going out to every residence. We're working with our friends and colleagues at the Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition (CCDC) to ensure that all Coloradans with disabilities respond to the 2020 Census. We want every one of us to be counted!

Okay, we said we’d have a video on the 2020 Census for blind folks, and here it is!

Editor’s Note: We introduced you to holly some months ago, when the weather was warmer and she was a relatively new student at the center. She comes from the United Kingdom and her drive to attend the Colorado Center for the Blind stems in part from the fact that, as she says “there aren’t any training centers where I’m from.” And that means not even bad ones. Holly is a widely-read blogger on disability and blindness (Catch These Words), and we thought her thoughts on this video after completing our program – one of the more rigorous blindness training programs there is – offer us all an important perspective on what we do here, and why.

Maura finished high school last spring and plans to go on to college next year. Before she did that, however, she was determined to obtain the skills she needed to be independent as a blind person so that nothing could hold her back in college, or beyond. We’ll let Maura tell you how it’s going in this post she made last month on Face Book. And we hope you will make a donation today, Colorado Gives Day.

These past few days have been so incredible! On Friday, I completed my second CCB graduation requirement by making my mini meal. This meal is to serve 15 guests and you have to cook 3 dishes. I made rolls, potato soup and Oreo pudding pie, and I had a little over 2 days to shop for and prepare the food from scratch. Everything was a hit, especially the Oreo pie, and I felt so much excitement and energy after all was said and done.

Executive Director Julie Deden wrote this salute to the final five students graduating from the Colorado Center for the Blind in 2019.

Colorado Gives Day is this Tuesday, December 10, and as we do each year at this time, we are asking for your financial support for our programs at the Colorado Center for the Blind. In the next couple of weeks, five students will graduate from our Independence Training program. Each of these students have made tremendous accomplishments that will propel them towards an exciting life. Each of them now realizes that being blind does not need to stop them from doing what they want to do with their lives. By introducing you to these students and their compelling, unique stories, we hope you will be inspired to make a contribution to the Colorado Center for the Blind on December 10. As I wrote about each of them, I was inspired myself!