General Colorado Center Information

We’re excited to open our doors to the Littleton community once again during Western Welcome Week. We will give tours to all comers between 3 and 7 p.m. today. Our students will be in their classes and staff will talk about what we teach in each area – Braille, Cane Travel, Home Management, Technology and Wood Shop. We’ll also show visitors our gym with exercise stations and goal ball court, and have stops to learn about our art and STEM programming.

We’re proud of our senior programs and how they have changed the lives of seniors who have lost vision and the people who love them. We’re excited about how those programs continue to grow – from the residential Seniors in Charge (twice a year), to four support groups (one in Spanish), to ever-expanding opportunities to provide outreach services.

And so we’re proud of our new Senior Program video, made with filmmaker and long-time collaborator Djuna “DJ” Zupancic. The video doesn’t talk about all the program details as much as it endeavors to tell what those programs and services have meant to five seniors in particular.

Embodied in these seniors and in their stories are the values that drive our Senior Services – indeed everything we do at CCB – skills that build belief in ourselves, a community that supports us, hope where there was uncertainty and maybe just a skosh of defiance!

Thanks to DJ for her highly professional and creative work. She gets us!

There wasn’t time to sit still till lunch was served, but none were inclined to do so at Saturday’s #NFChallenge Olympic Day 2017. There were just too many things to try out – beep baseball demonstration with the Colorado Storm, judo and power-lifting, goal ball and tandem bicycling with Eye-Cycle! Everybody got to take a turn at three or four of these activities, and a few even took a second bike ride or got into a couple of actual goal ball matches!

But participants were able to sit still long enough to listen to Paralympic runner Chaz Davis talk about how he went from “overweight and out-of-shape” to being the current record-holder in the marathon for blind and visually impaired runners.

And then it was back to another round of fun – and fitness – activities!

About 90 people collected in the meeting room on a 95-degree day to share a little summer society. It was CCB’s annual Ice Cream Social, ranging from Confidence Camp kids as young as 6 to Older Blind Programs participants who declined to reveal their ages, and all of the staff and students of our middle school, high school and college-bound students and Independence Training Program.

What they all had in common was blindness and the determination and desire to take charge with confidence, and today that meant taking charge of a drumstick or ice cream bar!

  The Colorado Center for the Blind received word in May that we had been recertified by the National Blindness Certification Board for another three years, and that we received the first-ever score of 100 percent following the onsite review. That news was reported last week to the CCB Board of Directors!

Our distinguished Board of Directors met here at the Center on June 2 and 3 to hear how things are going, to discuss both the immediate and the more distant future of programs and growth at the Center.

Delma Taylor and her husband Ed have been attending our Senior Program for longer than anyone. Delma was the one who’d lost her sight, and Ed came for support and to give it as well. A few years ago Ed’s sight failed too, and they kept coming.

Ed passed away in April and, the day after Memorial Day, Delma and her son Ron came with family to plant a Peace Rose in our Legacy Garden. Duncan and some of the seniors came out to the garden as son Ron and great-nephew Isaac (shown in the photo above) did the digging and the planting.

We send our sympathies to Delma and the taylor family for their loss, and thank them for the honor of having Ed’s memorial rose in our garden!

Who can resist a 2-for-1 deal? Steve called it out at morning announcements – Ashley for her support drop (meaning she spent the morning with Steve), and Julie M. on her solo drop! What a great deal – and they both made it back successfully, and with more confidence in their independent travel skills!

Limit one coupon per Travel Instructor, please.

It’s still too chilly for tender basil and eggplant and jalepeños, not to mention tomatoes and tomatillos and thyme, but it was a great morning to plant seeds in our Legacy Garden with Arapahoe County’s Master Gardeners! So that’s what happened – Jen and Carina’s 1st hour Braille classes went out first, followed by Tech classes with Chip, Chris and Showe.

By next week, the night airs will be considerably warmer, and we’ll be able to put in our plants. For now, it’s exciting – the growing season is definitely underway!

Spring rock climbing with NSCD is underway, and Group 2 made their way on Tuesday to Denver PAL’s indoor climbing wall for their introductory climb, and lessons in harnessing up, tying knots and belaying. NSCD fittingly hung a bell at the top of each route so climbers can ring it loud and proud when they reach the top! We’re good with ringing that bell with confidence!

In addition to the introductory indoor climb, each group does two outdoor climbs in Clear Creek Canyon as well, though Group 2’s scheduled outdoor climb on Friday has been rescheduled because … Well, it’s snowing again in Colorado in May!

Ashley took the practical desire to know how to sew on a button several steps further after signing up for the after-school sewing class, and turned her new sewing skills into tactile art!