Partnerships

Zen and the Art of Archery was a popular book in the 1970s among a certain crowd in which martial arts practitioners became adept at hitting the bullseye while blindfolded. What does that mean? Who really knows, other than it was the era of the “Kung Fu” TV series.

Nonetheless, our partners at NSCD arranged an archery class for some of our students, and it took place in the gym last Tuesday.

Dare we say it? It really hit the mark!

MAKING CONNECTIONS THAT WORK FOR YOU Career and College Seminar

Friday, March 10, 2017
9:00 am to 3:00 pm

At the Colorado Center for the Blind
2233 West Shepperd Avenue
Littleton, Colorado 80120

Lunch will be provided. To reserve your lunch, please RSVP no later than March 6th to Monique Melton at mmelton@cocenter.org or 303-778-1130 extension 221.

Don’t miss the keynote address:
“Trends in Employment – The Future Has Arrived” presented by Alexandra Hall.

The pond at nearby Sterne Park usually has a fair share of Canada Geese and Mallards, and today was no exception as the group walked the path this morning.

Birding by Ear started up again today with a visit from Ali Mayes of the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies. Though it was warm, not a great variety of birds are around in February.

We were pleased to host usability testing of Dominion’s electronic voting system on February 13 and 14. Students, staff, seniors and alums took the system for a spin and provided feedback to Dominion’s engineers. We’re especially excited to partner on this project because Dominion will provide electronic voting systems to every county in Colorado for the next 7 or so years. What we share with them will be reflected in our nonvisual accessible voting for a good long while, and we applaud their effort to get our feedback!

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.

Every year, Professor Harrison arrives about an hour before the class is to begin and lays out the specimens – about a dozen dog sharks or dogfish, all between two and three feet in length. Along with them are scalpels, probes and vinyl gloves. At some point in the morning, we’ll learn that sharks don’t sleep—they can’t stop moving water over their gills or they’ll suffocate, and that in the UK and Ireland it’s a fair chance that they are the main ingredient of your fish and chips.

After examining the outer anatomy, like dorsal fins, tail, nose and gills, it’s time to turn the sharks over and make an incision. Inside the body cavity students found the lungs, heart, stomach, liver and sex organs. At least two of the sharks had the undigested remains of their last meal.

This year’s group included about nine kids and a fair sprinkling of our own students as both learners and mentors.

So this is how Tuesday goes at CCB sometimes.

First thing this morning Alie Mays came for our “Birding by Ear” class. Seven of us reviewed recordings of local bird songs, then walked over to Sterne Park, where we heard mallards, doves, goldfinches and of course Canada geese. Today’s mascot was the belted kingfisher, an unexpected find. He just kept calling and calling as he circled over the pond.

In the Senior Resource Room something was happening called sugar scrub. Jenny Callahan led Seniors in making sugar scrub, using sugar (surprise) and oil and scents like lavender and almond. Whatever it is, it sure sounded fun to make, judging by the giggles and cackles.

It’s that time of the year. Just as we start to think about turkey and stuffing with cranberries, it’s time for blind kids in the area to get hands-on with shark innards!

As he has for more than a decade, Arapahoe Community College’s Biology Professor Terry Harrison will lead a shark dissection at CCB on Friday, November 18. Harrison has partnered with CCB to ensure that blind kids in Colorado get actual experience in this one aspect of the STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). Participants will handle the scalpels, determine sex, examine the lungs, liver and those sharp little dog shark teeth.

Start time is 10 a.m. on Friday and wraps up at 1 p.m. following pizza (no anchovies).

Students, teachers, or parents can contact Youth Services Director Brent Batron for more information or to reserve a spot – after all, there are only going to be so many sharks!

With just a week to go before the third annual exhibit, “Shared Visions Collaborative Artworks”, some Center art students traveled to Arapahoe Community College’s to make some art and to offer some feedback to painting students on their tactile works.

For their very first class with Ann Cunningham, the newest group of CCB art students composed objects on a flat plane and then used a thermoform machine put together by Ceramics Instructor Katie Caron. Some of the results are shown in the photo above – plastic sheets that, using a combination of heat and a vacuum, conform to the shapes of the objects.

It’s basically the same process used in product packaging, but way more legit.