Take Charge with Confidence and Self-Reliance

Tag: graduation

  • Colorado Gives Day is 4 Weeks Away!

    by

    Dan Burke

    A man on skis wearing a "Blind Skier" vest moves down a snowy slope at the direction of a guide behind him

    A man on skis wearing a "Blind Skier" vest moves down a snowy slope at the direction of a guide behind him
    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

    A standing woman gestures to the room of seated fellow students as she talks

    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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  • It’s a new kind of graduation, and Charis is the first!

    by

    Dan Burke

    Charis holding her Bell of Freedom standing next to Julie in the Front Lobby at the CCB

    Charis holding her freedom Bell in the lobby, Julie next to herToday Charis is graduating from the center. Hers will be a unique graduation, with the actual Freedom Bell ceremony and the “love session” that typically follows being conducted on Zoom for social distancing purposes. No hug from Julie.

    Charis was just one week away from finishing her program when we closed the building in late March and many of our students went home. Graduation means, among other requirements, that she must cook a meal for the entire center. Today that’s about 30 of us altogether.

    Charis holds up one of several trays of food for her grad meal at the service windowOn the menu was Mediterranean quinoa salad, home-baked challah dinner rolls and Devil’s Food cupcakes.… Read the rest “It’s a new kind of graduation, and Charis is the first!”

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

    by

    Dan Burke

    Holly headed out from the Center with her cane

    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”

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  • A salute to Our Graduates #COGivesDay

    by

    Dan Burke

    Paul headed out from the Center with his cane

    Executive Director Julie Deden wrote this salute to the final five students graduating from the Colorado Center for the Blind in 2019.

    Colorado Gives Day is this Tuesday, December 10, and as we do each year at this time, we are asking for your financial support for our programs at the Colorado Center for the Blind. In the next couple of weeks, five students will graduate from our Independence Training program. Each of these students have made tremendous accomplishments that will propel them towards an exciting life. Each of them now realizes that being blind does not need to stop them from doing what they want to do with their lives.… Read the rest “A salute to Our Graduates #COGivesDay”

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  • Signs of Spring

    by

    Dan Burke

    Omar, Charles and Kameron move picnic tables while Julie and Duncan figure out placement

    Omar, Charles and Kameron move picnic tables while Julie and Duncan figure out placement

    Sometimes spring arrives in Colorado in waves that feel like that bad bus driver, the one who alternately steps on the gas and then lets off, again and again, rocking you forward and back into half-nausea. That’s how it’s been this year – 80 degree days followed by an icy blast of wind and snow and then it starts again. But underfoot (and a couple of times under the snow), the grass is greening and the smell of the damp, warming soil is like a reassuring promise, while overhead in the budding trees robins and sparrows and towhees announce their return.… Read the rest “Signs of Spring”

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  • It’s #ColoradoGivesDay! Please make a donation to CCB!

    by

    Dan Burke

    CCB Wreath with Freedom Bell centered and photos of People from each CCB Program area

    CCB Wreath with Freedom Bell centered and photos of People from each CCB Program area

    These are the faces of just a few who have benefitted from previous Colorado Gives Day donations. They range from ages 5 and up and their circumstances are all a bit different, but all have gained the skills and the confidence to “Take Charge with Self-reliance!”

    This year our Confidence Camp for Kids (CC4K) had 11 elementary school kids for this two-week day-camp. They worked on Braille and cane skills all the time, but also learned to make their own lunches, traveled on the light rail and bus, went canoeing and rock climbing and gained a peer group of other blind kids.… Read the rest “It’s #ColoradoGivesDay! Please make a donation to CCB!”

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  • From Motorcycles to the New Parking Lot to the #NFBCO18 Convention: Catching Up with All of Autumn

    by

    Dan Burke

    CCB students and staff gather near a row of motorcycles lined up in front of the McGeorge Mountain Terrace Apartments

    CCB students and staff gather near a row of motorcycles lined up in front of the McGeorge Mountain Terrace Apartments

    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.… Read the rest “From Motorcycles to the New Parking Lot to the #NFBCO18 Convention: Catching Up with All of Autumn”

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  • “I rang my Freedom Bell (again)!” Serena has a new job!

    by

    Dan Burke

    Serena ringing her Freedom Bell

    Serena ringing her Freedom Bell at her graduation

    Editor’s Note: What follows is an e-mail Director Julie Deden received from Serena, a recent graduate of our Independence Training Program (ITP).Serena is the fifth ITP grad to find employment in the last month or so. It’s the best kind of news! We print the message with her permission.

    * * *

    Hi Julie,

    I have some great news for you.  Today, I received my official offer of employment from the NJ Commission for the Blind!  I’ll be working with blind seniors.  I’ll be starting on October 30th.

    Words can’t express the gratitude I feel towards you and all my instructors for all I learned during my time at CCB. … Read the rest ““I rang my Freedom Bell (again)!” Serena has a new job!”

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  • Our #Mother’sDay Tribute: The Moms of 3 Recent Grads Speak of Independence

    by

    Dan Burke

    Moms, along with Dads, grandparents, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, cousins, friends and of course spouses and children, regularly attend the graduation ceremonies of our students. The clips that make up this video are from three 2017 graduations – those for Jackson, Trevor and Brittany, during which their respective moms ( and one grandma), shared their feelings and hopes for their now-grown children. There’s nothing we can really add and, since it’s Mother’s Day, we’ll let the Moms hold center stage as they should. Here’s our love and thanks to all those Moms who believe in the independence of their blind children.… Read the rest “Our #Mother’sDay Tribute: The Moms of 3 Recent Grads Speak of Independence”

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