General Colorado Center Information

Philosophy bakes no bread. Philosopher Bertrand Russell said that. But a wise man we know once pointed out that no bread is baked without philosophy. Tabea graduated from CCB in 2016 and has gone on to graduate school. She knows that our belief in our blind students is the yeast that leavens the bread of our students’ confidence and self-determination! Indeed, in our Senior and Youth Programs as well!

Please support us tomorrow, COGivesDay, December 6!

Like Martin and Vika, blind people from five to ninety-five are on the move every day at the Colorado Center for the Blind!

Please support us tomorrow on #COGivesDay December 6!

Every year, Professor Harrison arrives about an hour before the class is to begin and lays out the specimens – about a dozen dog sharks or dogfish, all between two and three feet in length. Along with them are scalpels, probes and vinyl gloves. At some point in the morning, we’ll learn that sharks don’t sleep—they can’t stop moving water over their gills or they’ll suffocate, and that in the UK and Ireland it’s a fair chance that they are the main ingredient of your fish and chips.

After examining the outer anatomy, like dorsal fins, tail, nose and gills, it’s time to turn the sharks over and make an incision. Inside the body cavity students found the lungs, heart, stomach, liver and sex organs. At least two of the sharks had the undigested remains of their last meal.

This year’s group included about nine kids and a fair sprinkling of our own students as both learners and mentors.

The kitchens at CCB are just a few steps away from the lobby where Robert mans the front desk and management offices are located. Because our students are constantly cooking up amazing things in the kitchens, the odors filling the lobby area are sometimes maddeningly wonderful. That was certainly the case a few weeks ago when Chris prepared and served his mini-meal for fifteen.

So this is how Tuesday goes at CCB sometimes.

First thing this morning Alie Mays came for our “Birding by Ear” class. Seven of us reviewed recordings of local bird songs, then walked over to Sterne Park, where we heard mallards, doves, goldfinches and of course Canada geese. Today’s mascot was the belted kingfisher, an unexpected find. He just kept calling and calling as he circled over the pond.

In the Senior Resource Room something was happening called sugar scrub. Jenny Callahan led Seniors in making sugar scrub, using sugar (surprise) and oil and scents like lavender and almond. Whatever it is, it sure sounded fun to make, judging by the giggles and cackles.

Yes – Colorado’s single largest charitable giving day is barely a week away! And you can preorder your charitable gift to CCB for delivery on December 6!

On that Tuesday, the Colorado Center for the Blind will be one of nearly 2000 Colorado nonprofits who will receive contributions. During the same 24-hour period last year, more than $25 million was given. Some of those donations were pre-scheduled on the COGives.org web site.

Contributions received on December 6 help qualify us for a portion of the $1 million incentive fund! That’s why prescheduling is important – to make sure your gift to CCB counts toward our total to qualify for the incentive fund.

#### What to do

We were more than ready by noon last Thursday! We’d been waiting for this meal for two weeks, smelling the roasting turkeys and the pies and so much more! Of course, all of our students had a part in preparing it, so they’d been right in the kitchen smelling what we were at last all going to be very, very thankful for!

It’s an annual event. A week before Thanksgiving we hold our own Thanksgiving gathering at the Center prior to everyone’s dispersal to families and friends across the country. We start off after morning classes with an hour or so of potluck appetizers furnished by staff and maybe a game or two. It’s our time to be together, and it’s a big deal and a big meal.

A very big meal! This year, under the guidance of our Home Management Instructors Maureen, Shon and Delfina, our students prepared four turkeys, three kinds of stuffing, 30 pounds of potatoes, green bean-mushroom casserole (and one without), mac and cheese, a ham and pumpkin and pecan pies. There were candied yams and sweet potatoes and 100 homemade dinner rolls.

It’s that time again! Colorado’s largest day of online charitable giving is scheduled for Tuesday, December 6, and again featuring an incentive fund of $1 million from the Community First Foundation and First Bank.

It’s that time again! Colorado’s largest day of online charitable giving is scheduled for Tuesday, December 6, and again featuring an incentive fund of $1 million from the Community First Foundation and First Bank.

You might remember that CCB was lucky enough to be featured on 9News’ coverage of the statewide giving program in 2014 and 2015. We don’t expect to be on TV again this year, but we do count on and appreciate the contributions we receive on Colorado Gives Day each year. Most importantly, donations made online on December 6 help to qualify us for a part of the $1 million Incentive Fund – making your donated dollar go even farther!

With just a week to go before the third annual exhibit, “Shared Visions Collaborative Artworks”, some Center art students traveled to Arapahoe Community College’s to make some art and to offer some feedback to painting students on their tactile works.

For their very first class with Ann Cunningham, the newest group of CCB art students composed objects on a flat plane and then used a thermoform machine put together by Ceramics Instructor Katie Caron. Some of the results are shown in the photo above – plastic sheets that, using a combination of heat and a vacuum, conform to the shapes of the objects.

It’s basically the same process used in product packaging, but way more legit.

And now raise your lemonade glass in a toast to employees at the Curtis Hotel!

Last weekend, at the 2016 National Federation of the Blind of Colorado Convention in Lone Tree, Marc Greytak of the Curtis Hotel in downtown Denver presented a check to CCB for $3141.25.

That’s pretty exciting, you bet! What makes this donation a bit more interesting, however, is that the money comes from the employees of the Curtis. The Colorado Center for the Blind was selected to be the beneficiary of the Curtis’s #WeLovetheCurtis giving program. Associates at the Curtis can give in a number of ways, including by payroll deduction or from proceeds from its Friday fund-raiser, the “Lemonade Stand.”

How did CCB get picked for the program, you might ask? Well, from our own Maryann Migliorelli , who is one of those Curtis Hotel employees and also president of the NFB of Colorado Boulder Chapter!

Thanks MaryAnn and all the associates at the Curtis – yes, #WeLovetheCurtis, too!