Independence Training Program

We were delighted to have a visit from 2016 alum Peter Slatin, who is also now on our Board of Directors. Peter was in Colorado for Ski for Light and spent a few days in Denver afterward. He dropped in on art class and took up the Sensational Blackboard to do some experimenting with paper textures. That was Tuesday afternoon, and on Wednesday he returned to the Center to conduct Philosophy Class.

The day didn’t go uncelebrated. The Seniors had a Valentine’s party (there are rumors of romance there). Even ITP got into the act with Valentine’s cookies to mark “National Singles Day”?

CG admits she’d done very little cooking before starting her training at the Center. Now she enjoys it, enjoys sharing with friends. Watch how calm she is as she prepares her mini-meal for 15 guests.

Ryan admits he was pretty happy to be wearing sleepshades as he chopped the 18 onions it took to make his French onion soup. He is also now excited about cooking something other than “meat” since he came to the Center.

Shrimp and French bread … Brittany is cool and in charge of her mini-meal for 15!

Trevor has a degree in Physics, is a bit of an inventor, more than just a dabbler in the maker movement, and he takes his tinkerer’s inclinations to the kitchen. “How does?” and “What if?” are part of what makes us human, so they are naturally encouraged in our training program.

Yes, we’re pleased and excite to be the host site for the Braille Challenge for 2017! Fifteen Metro-area students ages 6 to 17 are here to demostrate their skils in reading, writing and more using Braille. It’s our third year to host the Metro Challenge, which is sponsored by the Braille Institute of America and coordinated in Colorado by the Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind. Last week, students in Colorado Springs met the Braille Challenge as well.

This afternoon the State Rehabilitation Council met at the Center. The SRC is required of each state’s Vocational Rehabilitation program, and includes members from across the state representing many disabilities.

Where were all our students, you may well ask. They were displaced today, working in all their classes from our McGeorge Mountain Terrace Apartments.

Planning, preparing and serving a three-recipe meal to 15 people is no small matter. Jackson admits at one point he was getting nervous, but he tried to treat the process as a “regular day in class”. He definitely had it going on with his mini-meal!

Classes started today for 2017, and on top of that it’s Tuesday – meaning that Seniors came in to the Center as well! After two weeks off folks were pretty happy to be back in spite of a bit of cold weather! Here is a collection of sights and sounds from the day, and here’s to taking charge with confidence in 2017!

Editor’s Note: We thought this hometown article about our student Chaz and his American record in his first-ever marathon last month well worth the read. Needless to say, we’re excited for him and proud of his achievements!

By John Conceison
It’s always fine when a competitor thrives during an Olympic year.

For Grafton’s Chaz Davis, 2016 has served as a year of wondrous accomplishment, complete with the trip to Rio and recording personal bests at the Paralympic Games.

Well, apparently, the year wasn’t quite complete until the beginning of this month. Davis still hadn’t run a full-course marathon, though he had participated in the relay challenge at last year’s California International Marathon in Sacramento…

Read the rest of this Worcester Telegram story