Independence Training Program

Zach’s day was Wednesday, October 28, a day to celebrate what he now “does” after nine months of training at the Center, and the confidence he has as a blind person for the things he will do in the future. The photo of him ringing his Freedom Bell above shows just how ready he was for that celebration.

Zach fought for nearly two years to get funding to come to the Center from Wisconsin. The real work started when he got here early this year, however.

When it came to the kitchen, Zach now has a long list of things he does and can do.

“You had a whole list of ‘I can’ts,’ Maureen, his Home Management Instructor, reminded him. “but you’ve turned that all around.. You can Mince and chop and do all the things you thought you weren’t going to be able to do – I’m so proud of you.”

We are excited about our new partnership with Karate Denver’s in Littleton. Martial Arts has long been a part of our Independence Training Program (ITP), and we’ve included classes in our Summer Youth and Senior Programs as well.

Like everything we teach and do at the Center, it really comes down to confidence, but of course there are other benefits – fitness, balance, awareness of one’s surroundings and learning to recognize where you are in relation to others and objects.

Our first class with Karate Denver started up and will meet for six Tuesdays in our gym. We appreciate Jason and Rachel coming to the Center every week to work with our students.

Just watch those kicks if you go into the gym!

Haylee might have been a little stressed out as she approached her graduation day, but to all outward appearances, she made it all look seamless, right down to her quick change of outfits prior to giving a polished and well-researched speech after cooking all day.

Haylee first came to the Center for our summer program in 2014, just after her high school graduation. Always a bundle of fun – riding her skate board, shooting baskets, and a mean goal baller – she wasn’t crazy about carrying a white cane at first.

“Haylee has always taken my arm when we went places together,” her sister Kaitlynd told us at the Bell Ceremony. “But the first time I came to visit her here I said ‘Take my arm,’” and she said “No, I have my cane and I’ll just walk with you.”

Cynthia finished her final weeks in the Independence Training Program (ITP) while working her new part-time job. Thus she finished things out in a slightly unusual order, cooking a delightful grad meal on a Thursday, then finishing her woodshop project before her last requirement – giving a speech to the entire Center the next week.

Hailing from Oklahoma, she decided to stay in Colorado. Not only does she have her new job, but her own apartment as well.

So it was with a special sense of pride for her achievements that we ate her final meal, checked out the lovely bookshelf she built and heard her final speech on “How to get a job.”

“You are one of the kindest, most caring people Cynthia,” Julie said at Cynthia’s bell ceremony. “You’ve mentored so many students while you’ve been here.”

They had both kitchens to themselves on Tuesday as Home Management staff took other students on shopping trips in advance of the NFB of Colorado convention next week. Daniel and Marcus spread out and did their work – both preparing for their mini-meals, which is the second of three major meal requirements in Home Management.

They’ve been cooking for fifteen and, as with all of the required meals they must find the recipes for three dishes, calculate the portions and the shopping list, and then do the shopping – all within the allotted budget.

Daniel’s meal was served on Wednesday and it was an all-vegan triumph of a black bean and tortilla casserole featuring homemade tortilla chips, a vegan sour cream-substitute, and a peach cobbler for dessert.

Marcus went another direction. His meal served Thursday was barbecue ribs with a homemade barbecue sauce, a salad with a homemade dressing and apple cheesecake.

“I’m doing Montana proud,” said the student from the Big Sky.

And that is a true statement!

Both of them did it proud for the guys.

Members of the Tuesday Senior group listen intently to the discussion at a recent meeting. While the three ladies use the familiar over-the-ear headphones, John is wearing a single earphone.

A couple of weeks ago Student and Senior Services Specialist Wayne Marshall presented this question to our Independence Training Program (ITP) students as part of Wayne’s Wednesday Word of the Week:

Hey, there’s something in the air today, the first day of October!

It’s coming from the kitchens here at the Center.

Here’s the menu of what students are preparing this morning … and it’s just the morning class:

• Spaghetti bolognese
• ravioli with chorizo sauce & garlic bread
• Homemade pepperoni lovers pizza
• broiled lemon prawns with mediterranean salad
• chicken fried steak and homemade mac and cheese

Do ya think it smells great around here?

Whew! So this is the way this week has been – really, the entire month!

A small but dedicated cadre of staff and students went out for a good hike on Sunday at Mt. Falcon near Morrison, and just to the south of Red Rocks. Like rock climbing and our Urban Adventures program, we partnered with the National Sports Center for the Disabled (NSCD) on the hike, which was 6.4 miles round trip, and rising from 6000 feet to 7500 feet in elevation.

Monday certain students attended a Boomers’ Career Fair. We don’t need to call out the attendees by name.

Pipi is teaching a sewing class on Monday afternoons, and they made a trip to get materials this week for their projects.

Ann Cunningham had a room full of artists later Monday afternoon, chiseling and filing and having a great time.

Tuesday Group 3 went rock climbing at El Dorado Canyon with NSCD.

We’d like to acknowledge two special visitors that came for a tour of the Center on August 24.

Bill Gideon is retired now, living in Longmont, but he served on New Mexico’s Services for the Blind Board from 1972 to 1984. He came to the Center with his friend Jo Anne Brubaker of Evans, and our student Tabea gave them a tour.

Bill doesn’t spend his retirement visiting blindness training centers, though. We have it on pretty good authority he’d rather be fishing. However, his daughter, Yolanda Thompson works for us three days a week teaching computer technology one-on-one, as well as maintaining our staff and student desktops. Yolanda herself is supposedly retired after teaching at the New Mexico training center for nearly … well, we don’t need to mention that number. And of course with Yolanda we also gained Bill’s son-in-law Mike Thompson as a three-day-a-week volunteer.

Dr. Edward (Eddie” Bell, Director of the Professional Development and Research Institute on Blindness at Louisiana Tech University, visited the Colorado Center for the Blind on September 3.

In Colorado to provide expert testimony to the Colorado Legislature’s Interim Study Committee on Vocational Rehabilitation Services for the Blind, he also presented an excellent philosophy class to our students, urging them to consider higher education as a means to economic independence.

Describing himself as a “ghetto kid” from Albuquerque who’d already dropped out of school by the time he became blind, he told students that he had no plans ever to go to college.

In fact, his decision to attend New Mexico’s training center Alamogordo was because “it sounded better than sitting on my brother’s couch.”

That was his ultimate reaction when a mentor suggested he start thinking about college, but his first thought was “No way.” I was a poor white kid. No one in his family, in his neighborhood or school had gone to college or was going to college. Then he thought of that couch again.