Colorado Center for the Blind

Announcing Homework Club!

by
Dan Burke

September 30, 2021

After School Program

Editor’s Note: This announcement went out via email this week, but constitutes months of dreaming, planning and recruitment and coordination. Suddenly, our familiarity with virtual platforms creates an opportunity to reach out to blind kids in new and innovative ways!

Dear Parents/Guardians:

Thank you for being strong and supportive partners in your blind/low vision child’s educational journey! We know that homework, some new concepts and various skills can be overwhelming to tackle. Perhaps at times, your child might just need to check in to refresh their knowledge about a particular topic. Our new program, Homework Club, is here to assist!… Read the rest “Announcing Homework Club!”
READ MORE
Blindness training goals delayed by social distancing? Check out the new Breaking Blind Podcast

by
Dan Burke

May 14, 2020

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”
READ MORE
“How My Life Changed at the Colorado Center for the Blind” @CatchTheseWords

by
Dan Burke

December 22, 2019

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.
… Read the rest ““How My Life Changed at the Colorado Center for the Blind” @CatchTheseWords”
READ MORE
FAST Scavenger Hunt: It’ll be a spooky good time… Or will it? Bwahahaha, come and find out for yourselves Oct. 10

by
Dan Burke

September 30, 2019

2019 – 2020 FAST Program

(Fun Activities & Skills Training)

A Haunted Scavenger Hunt

Can’t wait for Halloween to get here? Want something to do on a Friday night? Never been on a scavenger hunt? Well, come and join CCB for a Friday night of fun! We’ll have plenty of activities to test your problem solving skills, mental mapping techniques, spatial awareness, and most of all, your Cane Travel abilities.

We hear tails of what lies beneath the poolroom, or where that screeching down the north hallway comes from, but don’t let those minor obstacles stand in your way. After all, you have goals to achieve, places to be and treats to find.… Read the rest “FAST Scavenger Hunt: It’ll be a spooky good time… Or will it? Bwahahaha, come and find out for yourselves Oct. 10”
READ MORE
Announcing Our 2019 Summer Youth Programs

by
Dan Burke

January 27, 2019

For 2019, we’ll offer our long-standing summer youth programs, including Confidence Camp/BELL and our 8-week residential program for high school and college-aged youth. But we’ll also offer shorter-term and more focused “modules”, describe below. For more information on our 2019 Summer Youth Programs, contact Martin Becerra-Miranda at 303-778-1130, ext. 2223, or mbecerra@cocenter.org.

Confidence Camp/BELL Academy

Dates: June 10 through June 21
Ages: 5 to 10
Location: Colorado Center for the Blind

Program Description

This two-week day program will be filled with learning, challenge and fun. Your child will meet competent blind role models who will work with the kids on cooking, cleaning, Braille, independent travel and technology.… Read the rest “Announcing Our 2019 Summer Youth Programs”
READ MORE
It’s snowing in Littleton Today, & all our students, including our 5 new ones, made the trek to CCB! #ShareLittleton

by
Dan Burke

January 11, 2019

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.
READ MORE
“No End in Sight”, CCB Student Podcast launches: https://bit.ly/2ORWE0x

by
Dan Burke

August 30, 2018

It could be called a convergence. A handful of students who want to talk about their blindness, what they are learning at the Colorado Center for the Blind, how they are learning about being blind and proud – and how they’ve learned from their teachers, but especially one another, to laugh at themselves when they make mistakes.

And yes, at one another.

Couple that with the recent arrival of Brett Boyer, a CCB alum and experienced commercial broadcaster, as our newest Technology instructor, and you have a – well, imperfect storm.

What you get is “No End in Sight”, a monthly podcast featuring Boyer and a rotating cast of CCB students which launches this week.… Read the rest ““No End in Sight”, CCB Student Podcast launches: https://bit.ly/2ORWE0x”
READ MORE
Everybody Loves the #WesternWelcomeWeek Parade! #ShareLittleton

by
Dan Burke

August 23, 2018

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!
READ MORE
Belding Travels with Hockey Stick All the Way to the First U.S. #BlindHockey team #LivetheLifeYouWant @USAHockey

by
Dan Burke

April 14, 2018

Since January, fans attending Colorado Avalanche games have been treated to between-periods video of the Try Blind Hockey Day on January 17. Over 50 blind Coloradans went out on the ice that day, some for the first time, others with a stick in their hand for the first time. Fans are impressed by the video, but it is little more than an historical artifact now.

In just three short months, blind hockey has gone from being nonexistent in Colorado to a sport avidly pursued by dozens of players. And it’s produced a member of the newly-formed U.S. National Blind Hockey Team under the auspices of USA Hockey.… Read the rest “Belding Travels with Hockey Stick All the Way to the First U.S. #BlindHockey team #LivetheLifeYouWant @USAHockey”
READ MORE
Cupcakes and Support Drops

by
Dan Burke

February 16, 2018

Rebecca’s birthday was Tuesday and she received a special birthday delivery from her mom. It was surely especially welcome since Rebecca has been at CCB for about a month. But really, what mom could forget her daughter’s birthday? The entire center was excited about Rebecca’s birthday. Naturally we sang “Happy Birthday” at announcements, along with “The Dirge”, which only insiders will recognize, but the delivery included mini-cupcakes enough for almost everyone!

On Tuesday both Melissa and J.D. learned at announcements that they were going on their support drops. And happily they made it back in time to get cupcakes!.

READ MORE