Colorado Center for the Blind

Colorado Gives Day is 4 Weeks Away!

by
Dan Burke

November 10, 2022

Vaughn Skiing at Eldora with his Ignite ski guide

It’s Colorado’s biggest online giving event of each year, and just about our biggest fund-raising event too! It’s on the news, in your email box – just about everywhere.

But just so you don’t forget, you can go online at https://www.coloradogives.org/donate/CoCenter and schedule a donation to roll over on December 6. That’s the day your gift will count toward our percentage of the $1 Million Incentive Fund for Colorado Gives Day!

And how does your donation help our students? It helps with things like our ground-breaking tactile art program and challenge recreation activities like rock climbing and skiing.… Read the rest “Colorado Gives Day is 4 Weeks Away!”
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Turning the Tables: CCB Role Reversal Day 2022

by
Dan Burke

February 7, 2022

Students from every continent and every epoch imagine, even if only idly, of someday, somehow turning the tables on their teachers. Likely they don’t realize until they have done it, that their teachers also may see such a reversal as an opportunity to return the torment.

That’s partly the story of Role Reversal Day 2022, held on Friday, February 4. Hand it to the leadership of the CCB Student Association for organizing carefully and thoroughly, putting staff into groups and planning the schedule, even reviewing lesson plans from each ”teacher of the day.” This is the group, remember, that collected necessary items for the NICU babies when Avista Adventist Hospital was forced to evacuate during the December, 30 Marshall Fire in Boulder County.… Read the rest “Turning the Tables: CCB Role Reversal Day 2022”
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First Prize in Parade!

by
Dan Burke

October 21, 2021

The certificate has arrived! Of course, the winners of the 2021 Littleton Western Welcome Week Grand Parade were announced back in August, but now that we have that piece of paper we can’t help but crow a little!

And so we won first prize in the Group/School category! Hooray!

Was it the noisemakers? Was it the matching T-shirts? Was it the goofy object Gene wore on his head? Those probably all helped, but it was more likely the excitement and the sense of release as we shook our tamborines and maracas and chanted, “Who are we? CCB!” as we marched the parade route.… Read the rest “First Prize in Parade!”
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CCB graduate wins blind division in Boston Marathon! @blackkidrunning

by
Dan Burke

October 12, 2021

They love Chaz Davis in his hometown of Grafton, Mass. But we are just as proud of him here in Littleton, Colo. at the Colorado Center for the Blind!

Chaz, a 2016 Paralympian in Rio and a 2017 graduate of CCB, won the Boston Marathon’s visually impaired division on October 11. It was the 125th Boston Marathon, but the first year that this division was available for blind runners to register in. Previous blind marathoners in Boston just … well, ran.

Blind runners run with a guide to whom they are tethered, meaning that the guide and blind runner must be carefully matched as far as speed and endurance, and marathon runners may change guides during a race.… Read the rest “CCB graduate wins blind division in Boston Marathon! @blackkidrunning”
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Walking the Virtual Halls at CCB

by
Dan Burke

January 9, 2021

Moving out of your virtual classroom into the main “lobby,” you could very easily run into a classmate or another instructor, identifiable by their name in the participants list. Not by their video image, however, because of course class time, even remotely, is sleep shade time, too. Still, you might unmute yourself and exchange a few words before choosing your next classroom from the list of breakout rooms.

The final three weeks of classes at CCB for 2020 were virtual, as are these first two weeks of 2021. Since Thanksgiving, we held regular classes on the Zoom platform, but doing so in a way that only became possible with the addition of a new feature this fall.… Read the rest “Walking the Virtual Halls at CCB”
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“Katie Goes to Blind School” #ColoradoGives

by
Dan Burke

December 8, 2020

Good evening!

This is the last blast for Colorado Gives Day. Promise.

There’s still time to donate to the Colorado Center for the Blind at
the Colorado Gives page

And as your reward for clicking on this post, you get to meet Katie. She’s a career social worker whose degenerative eye condition interrupted her professional employment, so she came for training. For the past three months she’s been posting regularly on her Face Book page about her journey at CCB. She calls this “Katie Goes to Blind School.” Here’s a portion of a post about learning to travel with a long white cane, and the other things she is learning along the way.… Read the rest ““Katie Goes to Blind School” #ColoradoGives”
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Blindness Skills & Confidence More Necessary Than Ever #ColoradoGives

by
Dan Burke

December 6, 2020

The skills of independence for our blind students, and indeed for our staff, are more critical in these difficult times than ever before. Even though the world has changed we all at the Colorado Center are still able to work with our students so that they will gain belief in themselves and be able to move forward with confidence and self-reliance!

Support us on Colorado Gives Day this Tuesday, December 8. And you can schedule a donation tonight if you like so that it will be counted on Tuesday.
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From the Director: Determination, Challenge, Creativity and Resolve #ColoradoGives

by
Dan Burke

December 2, 2020

Dear CCB Friends and Family –

All of us at the Colorado Center for the Blind hope that each of you had a nice Thanksgiving. The year of 2020 has brought a great deal of determination, challenge, creativity and resolve to us at CCB. The determination came from the staff who are dedicated and committed to work with our students of all ages. The challenge has been to make sure that we could continue to provide training to all of our students and our seniors in a safe manner. The creativity has been instrumental to develop innovative ways for our students and seniors to learn and to gain confidence.… Read the rest “From the Director: Determination, Challenge, Creativity and Resolve #ColoradoGives”
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CCB 2020: Resilience in a Year of Challenge @nfbco #nfbco20

by
Dan Burke

November 30, 2020

We put this video together to serve as our report to the NFB of Colorado’s 2020 Virtual Convention October 29-31. We wanted to show the creativity of our staff and determination of our blind students of all ages to obtain the blindness skills that mean independence, which are necessary despite this pandemic. In fact, the importance of independence and blindness skills is even more critical than ever. Since filming and first showing this video, we have again moved our Independence Training Program (ITP) to be virtual until after the first of the year, while also discontinuing in-person (and socially-distanced) training sessions with our blind seniors.… Read the rest “CCB 2020: Resilience in a Year of Challenge @nfbco #nfbco20”
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Horsing Around with Arapahoe County Sheriff Office’s mounted Unit @ArapahoeSO

by
Dan Burke

August 5, 2020

Monday August 3 students and staff at the Colorado Center for the Blind met up with members of the Arapahoe County Sheriff Offices Mounted Unit at nearby Sterne Park. When Lt. Rich Anselmi, the unit’s commander first contacted Executive Director Julie Deden a while back about planning something together, Julie immediately reacted that it sounded like a lot of fun. She probably meant it would be fun for the students, too.

Four deputies, all members of the Mounted Unit, and about 20 volunteers were on hand with eleven horses, two of which were miniatures and one a small pony. Students and staff all got up close with one of the horses to learn about the animal and the basics of grooming, which usually requires three different brushes.… Read the rest “Horsing Around with Arapahoe County Sheriff Office’s mounted Unit @ArapahoeSO”
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