Youth Programs

We at the Colorado Center for the Blind appreciate your support! As a result of Colorado gives day we raised over $20,000. These funds will make it possible for us to serve more kids this summer in our Confidence camp and will also provide us with funds so that we can meet more seniors who are losing their vision and show them that they can still enjoy their lives and be independent.

Our message got out to the Denver Metro area as we also appeared on 9News the morning of December 8 in seven segments with the National Sports Center for the Disabled, showcasing our students and staff running the NSCD Moves obstacle course, as well as working in the shop and talking about seniors.

There are so many ways that we receive support from all of you from financial assistance to telling others about the center so that they can find the training, confidence and community that they need to move forward in their lives.

For most of us, the run up to the Thanksgiving holiday doesn’t conjure thoughts of sharks, but it does here at the Colorado Center for the Blind. That’s because for nearly a decade, Arapahoe Community College’s Biology Professor Terry Harrison has been conducting his shark dissection here with blind kids from around the Denver Metro area as well as from the Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind (CSDB).

This year’s event is Friday, November 13, from 10 a.m. to noon in our gym at 2233 W. Shepperd Ave.

“We set out to show that blind kids can actively participate in STEM subjects in school, and even consider STEM careers,” says Youth Services Director Brent Batron. “Terry has been a great ally for us in accomplishing this critical part of that goal.”

It’s only a month away – Colorado Gives Day 2015, and a great opportunity to support our programs and philosophy at the Colorado Center for the Blind!

You know that we don’t just teach blindness skills, as important as they are, but aim for that belief in those blindness skills that lead to confidence and self-reliance.

Whether it’s our Seniors, Youth or Independence Training Programs, those extras like Challenge Recreation, Art, our special emphasis on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM), or attending the largest annual gathering of the blind in the world – the National Federation of the Blind Convention – your donation can make the difference!

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!

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.

Help

By Marie Frackiewicz

(My head’s spinning like a crashing airplane.)
(My voice is broken like an old record.)
(My courage is shattered like a dropped mirror.)

How can I help myself?
How can someone help me?
How can anybody help me?
How do I live life like this???

A friend is all it takes to stop my dizziness.
An advocate is what I need to regain my voice.
A leader is here to give me courage.
And I am here to do my part.

At first I may have been lost but I have discovered so much more!
The more I explore, the more I learn, and the more I try the better I become.
The world can be a dark and frightening place, so the CCB has helped me find my way.
So, where are you headed next?

The Summer Youth Programs for 2015 ended July 29 with a talent show, and this fitting finale dedicated to Youth Services Director Brent Batron:

It’s the last week of July, and at the Colorado Center for the Blind we’re fighting the feeling that summer is almost over. We know that there are still weeks of hot weather, lovely warm Colorado evenings to enjoy.

But that vague anxiety is fueled as the last week of July saw our 22 summer students graduating on Wednesday, cleaning and packing on Thursday and leaving on Friday. Many of them are starting school in the first week of August. For them, summer truly is about over.

From Shay: Here at the airport, waiting to go home. Thinking about this summer, and how great it was. I met a lot of really amazing people this summer that have really help me and challenge me to do the best that I could. I am leaving here with so much. New friendships, amazing memories, and The ability to do more than I ever thought I could. I will never forget the memories or the people I met this summer. hope to come back next summer and to see all of you sometime again.

(Editor’s Note: We are delighted to be partnering with the Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind on this year’s Braille Challenge, a nationwide competition sponsored by the Braille Institute. It’s the first time that a test site has been located in the Denver Metro area. Below is the press release.) We’re all going to have a great time with Braille!

Braille Competition to Test Skills of Metro Kids:

CCB Partners with CSDB to Host Nationwide Program

Contact: CSDB: Diane Covington, dcovington@csdb.org or 719-661-0941
CCB: Brent Batron, bbatron@cocenter.org or 303-778-1130 x222

Editor’s Note: What follows is excerpted from an August 6, 2014 blog post of The Blind Coloradan, the official blog of the National Federation of the Blind of Colorado. An Arizona high school student, Christian Able was a student this summer and worked 40 hours for the NFBCO staff. Here’s his reflection on the summer program at the Center and his work with the NFB of Colorado.

Stepping on that plane a month ago I thought everything would be easy and I wouldn’t learn anything this summer. That’s not the case at all. I would say the sleep shades helped me see. At my school I learn a lot about living successfully as a blind individual, but coming here has been a whole other experience.