General Colorado Center Information

Thanks to each of you for your donations to The Colorado Center for the blind during this Colorado Gives season! We believe blind people can do anything and we infuse this belief system in to our youth, adult and older adult programs. Our students pick up on this and gain belief in themselves. Our positive philosophy about blindness sets us apart from other blindness training programs. This  is the key to the accomplishments  of our students and their success is our success!

We want to again thank the Bob Bell family for providing us with a $25,000 match. This match  propelled us to a total of $64,526 in Colorado Gives Day donations - the most we have ever received!

And so, as we wind down 2025, we want to express our deep and humble gratitude for your generosity. Your support helps us ensure that we can provide the highest quality blindness training possible and that our students will live the meaningful lives they want!

We wish each of you a happy holiday season!

Julie Deden

Executive director 

Working here, we get to witness the moment when our students stop asking “what if” and start asking “what’s next.”

That’s what your Colorado Gives Day donation supports.

Not just programs. Not just services.

People. Blind People rewriting their own stories- finding confidence, community, and the freedom to build the lives they want.

Support the Colorado Center for the Blind this Colorado Gives Day. Between now and Tuesday, December 9, your donation is also matched by a generous $25,000 challenge from the Bob Bell family. So, double your support and help someone discover that they can still pursue their dreams!

It’s Tuesday, and our blind seniors group is meeting, despite the cold. But these are the kind of folks who are determined to learn all they can about blindness, share all they can with one another and, as contributors to a positive and supportive community of blind seniors, keep living the lives they want!

I want to take a moment to thank everyone who supports the work that we do at the Colorado Center for the Blind. For, without your caring, dedication, and support, we would not have been able to do so much in the last year.

We again had our most successful Colorado Gives Day. We continue to be moved and humbled by this generosity that supports our programs. We believe that blind people can do anything, and we are thankful that you believe in us.

Here are some 2024 highlights I would like to share with you:

The Taking Charge Program

In April, six women in our Older Blind program participated in our week-long residential intensive training program. They stayed at our student apartments and took the bus to the center each day. They had classes in cooking, technology, woodshop, cane travel, and Braille.

Landon began his training at the Colorado Center for the Blind a month after he graduated from high school. He’s from a small town in South Carolina. It’s the kind of town where everybody knows everybody else.

It was all about pies. That’s how we promoted our November 16 FAST (Fun Activities and Skills Training) event. We called it “Conquering the Kitchen,” and parents, youth, and teachers came from the Denver and Colorado Springs areas. Blind youth worked in the large kitchen with volunteer teachers from our Independence Training Program (ITP), while their parents were in the small kitchen with Director Julie Deden learning the same nonvisual techniques.

The snow is just about melted in the Denver area, but here’s a photo from last Thursday, just as the big storm was moving in. Travel Instructor Ernesto Lucca with his student Megan are coming back to the Center after a class on the snowy sidewalks of the city.

Megan is definitely doing things she didn’t think she would as a blind person.

“You step off of curbs, get turned around, but it’s amazing. I didn’t go anywhere before without a sighted guide. Now I’m crossing streets, taking the bus and the light rail!”

Greetings!

It’s no trick. Colorado Gives Day is December 10, with all donations for Colorado Gives Day eligible for a share of the $1 Million Incentive Fund from First Bank! Last year was our best ever, bringing in over $33,000 in donations!p> That was a big treat for us, and we thank you all again!p> When you give to the Colorado Center for the Blind, you are part of changing lives. Across Colorado, any number of our graduates who are blind parents will be taking their excited little ones trick-or-treating tonight. The belief that they can live the lives they want—including becoming parents—is in good part thanks to the Colorado Center for the Blind and your generous support!