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.

Movie and Pizza for our first FAST Friday!
That sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? Even better is that we’ll be watching an audio-described version of the all-time favorite, “Toy Story.” It’s Martin’s favorite movie!

Audio description provides information to blind and visually impaired viewers that would otherwise be inaccessible to them – short descriptions of on-screen scenes, action, gestures and facial expressions slipped in during gaps in the dialogue.

What:

Toy Story and Pizza

When:

Friday, September 21, 5:30 p.m.

Where:

Colorado Center for the Blind
2233 W. Shepperd Ave.
Littleton, CO 80120

How:

Brian organized the scuba experience at A-1 Scuba in Littleton. A certified diver himself, he found satisfaction in sharing the sport he loves with his friends and fellow Center students.

A group of seven Colorado Center for the blind students took a scuba lesson on August 31, thanks to the enthusiasm, organization and experience of one of their peers, Brian Bussard and A-1 Scuba and Aquatics Center in Littleton. In fact, A-1 donated the lesson, including gear and instructor time!

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.