We at the Colorado Center for the Blind appreciate your support! As a result of Colorado gives day we raised over $20,000. These funds will make it possible for us to serve more kids this summer in our Confidence camp and will also provide us with funds so that we can meet more seniors who are losing their vision and show them that they can still enjoy their lives and be independent.

Our message got out to the Denver Metro area as we also appeared on 9News the morning of December 8 in seven segments with the National Sports Center for the Disabled, showcasing our students and staff running the NSCD Moves obstacle course, as well as working in the shop and talking about seniors.

There are so many ways that we receive support from all of you from financial assistance to telling others about the center so that they can find the training, confidence and community that they need to move forward in their lives.

While we received exciting coverage on 9News at the Center along with National Sports Center for the Disabled (NSCD) for Colorado Gives Day, and tracked our total as it rose, Tuesday, December 8 was a lot like every other day at the Center. That is, business as usual while potentially life-altering – one small step at a time.

As the air warms and the snow begins to melt, as our students and some staff head for the airport after the delays and canellations of mid-week’s storm have sorted theselves out, here’s a holiday message from (most) of our self-assembled student choir at the Center:

9News will be with us at the Center for Colorado Gives Day tomorrow morning! Our long-time collaboration with National Sports Center for the Disabled (NSCD) will be spotlighted between 5:30 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. on 9News. The NSCD Moves obstacle course will be featured in a couple of segments, with Center students and staff in action!

Be sure to tune in tomorrow morning to see NSCD and the Center, and don’t forget to make a donation on our Colorado Gives Day page!

The Colorado Center for the Blind uses innovative techniques to teach proven blindness skills to our students, but the secret to our success is the confidence our students gain in themselves – the confidence to take aim at their dreams and hit their mark!

December 8 is Colorado Gives Day, and you can help our students hit their mark with a donation on our CO Gives page at www.coloradogives.org/cocenter

Your donation on Colorado Gives Day qualifies for the $1 Million Incentive Fund offered by Community First Foundation and First Bank. The Colorado Center for the Blind receives a percentage of the CGD total!

Take aim at success!

Take charge with confidence!

Give where you live!

Colorado Gives Day

December 8, 2015

The “Shared Visions” exhibit at Arapahoe Community College’s Colorado Gallery of the Arts on November 19 and 20 was a big success, featuring numerous multi-media and very tactile paintings by students in Nathan Abels’ painting classes, as well as pottery pieces from joint activities between Center students in Ann Cunningham’s art classes here and those in classes taught by Katie Caron, Ceramics Coordinator at ACC.

In addition, the cooperative activities and exhibit were featured on the Breaking Blind YouTube channel in two videos. See what Maureen has to say and what she experiences:

The national Federation of the Blind turns 75 today!

For most of us, the run up to the Thanksgiving holiday doesn’t conjure thoughts of sharks, but it does here at the Colorado Center for the Blind. That’s because for nearly a decade, Arapahoe Community College’s Biology Professor Terry Harrison has been conducting his shark dissection here with blind kids from around the Denver Metro area as well as from the Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind (CSDB).

This year’s event is Friday, November 13, from 10 a.m. to noon in our gym at 2233 W. Shepperd Ave.

“We set out to show that blind kids can actively participate in STEM subjects in school, and even consider STEM careers,” says Youth Services Director Brent Batron. “Terry has been a great ally for us in accomplishing this critical part of that goal.”

It’s only a month away – Colorado Gives Day 2015, and a great opportunity to support our programs and philosophy at the Colorado Center for the Blind!

You know that we don’t just teach blindness skills, as important as they are, but aim for that belief in those blindness skills that lead to confidence and self-reliance.

Whether it’s our Seniors, Youth or Independence Training Programs, those extras like Challenge Recreation, Art, our special emphasis on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM), or attending the largest annual gathering of the blind in the world – the National Federation of the Blind Convention – your donation can make the difference!

For nearly two decades, Colorado artist Ann Cunningham has been teaching art classes at the Colorado Center for the Blind. Initially drawn to us because she was curious about how blind people experience art (such as the stone carvings she produces), she has become one of North America’s leading teachers, advocates and innovators with respect to access to the arts for the blind – both as observers and creators.

Natalia at the wheel in the ceramics studio on the ACC campus.