General Colorado Center Information

Friday, December 15 is the annual Older Blind Programs Holiday Party at the Colorado Center for the Blind, and the Tuesday group got into the kitchen this week to bake cookies for the event. Among the cookie corps was CCB founder and Chair of our Board of Directors, Diane McGeorge. Also our Volunteer Extraordinaire, Diane is often here twice a week to assist with Braille classes and to participate in Older Blind Programs group meetings and activities.

The Older Blind Programs party will take place from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. here at the center. Lunch will be served and attendees are welcome to bring additional treats and goodies which are already cut for serving.

Tuesday is art day anyway, but this week it was art day all day long. Every student and staff member worked in the art room with Ann Cunningham and Jenny Callahan making ornaments, holiday cards or whatever else suited their fancy. Without a doubt, everyone enjoyed the break from regular classes and the chance to get into the holiday spirit!

With many students and the results of their projects, supplies ranging from clay to wax to stone and of course the tools to work with each, an art room can quickly succumb to forces best summed up in the statement:

“All things tend toward disorder.”

This may be a paraphrase and we certainly don’t recall who might have made it, unless it was Spock or Data on their respective iterations of Star Trek. But that statement sums up the state of things when Alex laBarre, a candidate for Eagle Scout and a member of Troop 457, asked if we had a project he could do as part of his final requirements.

Dugan graduated this fall, proudly ringing his Freedom Bell.

And students keep right on ringing their Freedom Bells this week and next, and on into the New Year! Thanks to the 69 individuals who gave online on Colorado Gives Day, December 5, as well as the two dozen or more who brought in checks or cash. We especially want to recognize the Tuesday morning Older Blind Programs group who passed a bucket around the room for contributions at the urging of John Batron. Our total for the Day was $13,353.

In addition, the weeks of November preceding the big day saw us collect another $10,000-plus.

Colorado Gives Day again broke its previous giving records, with $36,129,285 in donations from more than 150,000 donors. Our portion was modest compared to that number, but we are very happy and grateful for our small part and the opportunities these funds offer to our students. It’s great to be part of this statewide effort in its eighth year!

Starting with a little turkey structured discovery right up to the point where we start stuffing our faces, when the videographer puts away his camera to get in line. Even journalism has its natural limits.

Thanks to the generous support of so many, Colorado Gives Day (CGD) is truly an important part of our annual fundraising. Your contributions support our youth and senior programs as well as challenge recreation and art activities. We thank you for your past support and hope you will continue to support us with your donations in 2017 and by spreading the word about the work we do every day to make positive changes in the lives of blind people of all ages.

For our part, we pledge to continue to bring all the energy and ingenuity we have to innovate new ways to assist blind people to “Take Charge with Confidence and Self-reliance”!

Make a gift on COGivesDay, or schedule a gift now!

Last Monday our student J.D. couldn’t wait to report his big news.

“Good news isn’t as good if you can’t tell someone,” he said at morning announcements.

He went on to tell us that he had been named Editor of the Colorado Fire Fighter, the newsletter of the Colorado State Fire Fighters Association (CSFFA). His increasing skill and confidence with nonvisual access to computers and the Internet permit him to put his native skills in writing and editing to work on the CSFFA newsletter.

J.D. was a volunteer fire fighter in northeastern Colorado for many years before becoming blind a year and a half ago, and is still strongly dedicated to the CSFFA and the work its members do across the state.

Take Charge with Confidence and Self-Reliance

Colorado Center for the Blind page

Colorado Gives Day is December 5, and donations received that day online receive a share of an incentive fund, as well as being subject to lower credit card fees. But as we get into the Thanksgiving weekend and all that entails, be assured that you can go to Colorado Gives Day and schedule a donation as well!

Meantime, enjoy the video!

There was plenty on Thursday, November 16 – plenty to eat and to be thankful for at our 100-percent student-prepared Thanksgiving Feast!

It’s tradition at the Colorado Center for the Blind to hold our own Thanksgiving feast before we break for visits to family and friends on the official holiday. Our students cook it all with the guidance of our unparalleled Home Management staff, and there are always a lot of “firsts”.

For example, every year there are students who have never seen what a turkey looks like just out of the refrigerator. So on Tuesday, with serving gloves on, students examined and explored the four turkeys that eventually became our dinner.

And on Thursday in the buffet line Casey was happily talking about the gravy he had made.

In this part of the world, the BBC’s World Service can be heard during normal sleeping hours on one of our public radio stations. This week our volunteer photographer/videographer Mike Thompson had the BBC World Service on while falling back to sleep in the wee hours when he heard a familiar voice and a familiar name – Poonam Vaidya.

Poonam is from Bangalore, India and was one of our international students. (We always try to have one international student at any given time.) She graduated in 2016. Poonam was one of two blind women interviewed for the BBC program, “The Conversation.” The 30-minute radio podcast gives interesting insights into how blindness is viewed in other cultures.

And thanks for the great plug, Poonam!

Listen to the episode