Self-Determination

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.

Last year’s gardening season, with the Arapahoe County Master Gardeners from first to last spade, and Kimberley giving us historic background.

By Thursday, Jessica was challenging herself to travel independently between classes while wearing sleep shades.

We want to give a farewell wave to Jessica Edmiston, who spent Monday through Thursday here at the Center, not just observing, but working under sleep shades all week, going to classes with student mentors and working on the basics of Braille, Assistive Technology, cooking and travel. And as it happened, she was here to witness three graduations, including partaking of the meals prepared for 60 by the graduates, and the awarding of their Freedom Bells!

It’s no small deal for Jessica to take a week to do this, since she’s the Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind Birmingham Regional Center Director. That’s a long title, and it has a lot of responsibility to go with it, but her center contains a recently established Structured Discovery program, which is (the methodology and philosophy we employ here at CCB, called the Alabama Freedom Center for the Blind.

Well, yes! And a geek who is blind can be too, as David describes how he’s come from being only able to warm up frozen French fries to making Shepherd’s Pie for fifteen people.

“Is Suzie here this morning?” asked Daniel yesterday at morning announcements.

“No!” protested Suzie

This is how it goes sometimes near the end of a student’s program – things can get bunched up a bit. Suzie will graduate on May 10. On Tuesday this week, she completed her Monster Route – traveling to four places she’d never been before in four Metro-area cities. That’s a big, big day, and her protests were certainly as much about the fact that she was still a little tired as it was about the fact that it was raining yesterday morning.

You wouldn’t have needed to be told that Dorine’s Cinnamon-Pudding Cake was an award-winner if you had been anywhere near the Center’s kitchen this afternoon. It’s our spring Seniors in Charge week, and we have five dynamic seniors determined to keep living the lives they want. This afternoon, of course, they were cooking and baking under sleepshades, and the smell of that cake had mouths watering out in the lobby and beyond!

Sleepshades are optional, though encouraged, in the five-day training for seniors. This group is pretty game though, and all are giving them a good workout this week.

Believe it or not, the forecasts were correct, snow came in Friday night and is still falling Saturday morning of the last weekend in April. So here’s a warm thought. Serena made applesauce from scratch on Thursday in Home Management – peeling, coring, chopping, cooking and putting the mixture through the food processor. She’s got her hands wrapped around the still-warm quart jar of the golden stuff in the photo above, and she’s probably enjoying some of it this morning!

We have a lot of students nearing the completion of their training programs at the Center, and that always means a steady stream of drops and support drops each week. On Wednesday, C.G. did her final and independent drop, getting back to the Center in no time, even though she naturally had no idea where she was when she was “dropped.” Mike did his support drop the same morning, and Friday Chaz went on his support drop too. Both were successful.

Congrats all!

Here’s a pic of some of our seniors at Chili’s last Saturday, after attending the audio-described performance of “Mama Mia” at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. The Seniors used it as a fund-raiser, raising over $200. They keep a small donation fund going to help out with the expenses of various Senior activities for those who may come up short – things like bowling or movies. The money raised will go into that pot.

For the audio-described performances, blind and theater-goers check out a small FM receiver and headphones over which they receive the live audio description of action on the stage. DCPA offers at least one performance with this accessibility service, as well as sign-language interpreters, for each production.