We had a little bit of snow this morning, but not enough to keep us at home. Snow is just a part of everyday life and for our students, learning to travel in all weather means feeling confident about traveling to their jobs someday.

But it was cold, and will be colder tomorrow!

Philosophy bakes no bread. Philosopher Bertrand Russell said that. But a wise man we know once pointed out that no bread is baked without philosophy. Tabea graduated from CCB in 2016 and has gone on to graduate school. She knows that our belief in our blind students is the yeast that leavens the bread of our students’ confidence and self-determination! Indeed, in our Senior and Youth Programs as well!

Please support us tomorrow, COGivesDay, December 6!

“I cook all the time now that I’ve been here as a student,” Chris says in this mini-meal video. He took his first shot at baking a pie – three pies actually, sour cream apple pies. He graduates next week! “Crable” is his CCB nickname.

Like Martin and Vika, blind people from five to ninety-five are on the move every day at the Colorado Center for the Blind!

Please support us tomorrow on #COGivesDay December 6!

Every year, Professor Harrison arrives about an hour before the class is to begin and lays out the specimens – about a dozen dog sharks or dogfish, all between two and three feet in length. Along with them are scalpels, probes and vinyl gloves. At some point in the morning, we’ll learn that sharks don’t sleep—they can’t stop moving water over their gills or they’ll suffocate, and that in the UK and Ireland it’s a fair chance that they are the main ingredient of your fish and chips.

After examining the outer anatomy, like dorsal fins, tail, nose and gills, it’s time to turn the sharks over and make an incision. Inside the body cavity students found the lungs, heart, stomach, liver and sex organs. At least two of the sharks had the undigested remains of their last meal.

This year’s group included about nine kids and a fair sprinkling of our own students as both learners and mentors.

The kitchens at CCB are just a few steps away from the lobby where Robert mans the front desk and management offices are located. Because our students are constantly cooking up amazing things in the kitchens, the odors filling the lobby area are sometimes maddeningly wonderful. That was certainly the case a few weeks ago when Chris prepared and served his mini-meal for fifteen.

So this is how Tuesday goes at CCB sometimes.

First thing this morning Alie Mays came for our “Birding by Ear” class. Seven of us reviewed recordings of local bird songs, then walked over to Sterne Park, where we heard mallards, doves, goldfinches and of course Canada geese. Today’s mascot was the belted kingfisher, an unexpected find. He just kept calling and calling as he circled over the pond.

In the Senior Resource Room something was happening called sugar scrub. Jenny Callahan led Seniors in making sugar scrub, using sugar (surprise) and oil and scents like lavender and almond. Whatever it is, it sure sounded fun to make, judging by the giggles and cackles.

You hear from us all the time about what’s going on at the Center, so here’s a chance to get a student’s story from the very first.

Graham arrived in Denver from Brooklyn in mid-October, and he’s been blogging each week about his time at the Center for his friends back home and wherever. Check out his blog, See What I Did There.

Yes – Colorado’s single largest charitable giving day is barely a week away! And you can preorder your charitable gift to CCB for delivery on December 6!

On that Tuesday, the Colorado Center for the Blind will be one of nearly 2000 Colorado nonprofits who will receive contributions. During the same 24-hour period last year, more than $25 million was given. Some of those donations were pre-scheduled on the COGives.org web site.

Contributions received on December 6 help qualify us for a portion of the $1 million incentive fund! That’s why prescheduling is important – to make sure your gift to CCB counts toward our total to qualify for the incentive fund.

#### What to do

Before learning to carve a turkey, a blind person can greatly benefit from learning the bird by touch – how things are connected and how they will come apart. Since our students and Home Management staff started preparations for our own Thanksgiving meal (held a week before the actual holiday) Dishon Spears led students through this discovery process with turkeys that had been cooked and then refrigerated over night.

After that are some shots of all the food we ate! We have a lot to be thankful for!