General Colorado Center Information

It’s our job at the Colorado Center for the Blind to believe in our students, often well-before they begin to believe in themselves.

“We see you struggle when you first come for training, ” Assistive Technology Instructor Brett Boyer often says, “but we also have the privilege of watching you grow … and it’s always amazing.”

It is a privilege, and a joy. But it’s not a passive observation, because all of our instructors teach, challenge, push a little, pull a little, and encourage all along the way to give our students the opportunity to learn the things that make them increasingly independent and to develop the resilience and ingenuity to continue to learn and grow after the student moves on. Students go on to work or more training or college or, as happens sometimes, back to the work they did before they became blind.

Nothing tempers the desire of our students to find the tools and the belief in themselves that will sustain them in their quest to live lives of independence and success!

And so, still cautious, still wearing masks indoors all day, the Colorado Center for the Blind carries on with the training and the programs that will give our blind students those tools – in the kitchen, at the (computer) keyboard, reading electronic Braille displays and traveling the Denver Metro area on RTD. Indeed, these are the tools upon which to build for a lifetime!

It’s Etiquette Day in Home Management, and one of our newest students decided to dress up for the occasion. Sure, his attire is not strictly “black-tie” but definitely a cut or two above our normal business casual.

For Etiquette Day our Home Management teachers, Delfina and Stefanie walk students through everything from proper place settings to the techniques of maintaining polite manners when you can’t see your food.

Dan H took this as an opportunity to set himself apart. Every item from the brown felt hat, to the suit coat from Korea, to the tiny tie and the rings and beads, have some significance related to important people in his life – his mother and father, his sisters and his fiancée.

They love Chaz Davis in his hometown of Grafton, Mass. But we are just as proud of him here in Littleton, Colo. at the Colorado Center for the Blind!

Chaz, a 2016 Paralympian in Rio and a 2017 graduate of CCB, won the Boston Marathon’s visually impaired division on October 11. It was the 125th Boston Marathon, but the first year that this division was available for blind runners to register in. Previous blind marathoners in Boston just … well, ran.

Blind runners run with a guide to whom they are tethered, meaning that the guide and blind runner must be carefully matched as far as speed and endurance, and marathon runners may change guides during a race.

Join us in-person for a combined Learning Box and FAST rocket-building activity!

When:

October 16th, 2021
1:00 to 3:00 p.m.

Where:

Colorado Center for the Blind
2233 W. Shepperd Ave.
Littleton, CO 80120

Register by:

October 12, 2021

We send out a loving and hearty “Happy Birthday” to our founder, Diane McGeorge who is 89 today!

During morning announcements on Tuesday, August 31, student Amanda Juetten called for recognition and announced that she had someone on the phone.

Last Friday's vaccination clinic here at the center was a huge success, and we want to give a huge shout-out to our partners, Vive Family Wellness, St. Benedict’s Health and Healing Ministry, and the Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition for helping us make it possible for 29 people to get their first Moderna shot on May 14. The convenience was a big draw for staff, students and folks in the neighborhood to drop in, and that was the beauty of the event.

Sure the taco truck was outstanding, too. I mean, really outstanding!

The clinic for the second shot will be held on Friday, June 11 from 1 to 4 p.m.

Maybe we wanted to post this today because the sun is shining in these photos, and it’s been cold and rainy for the past couple of days.

On a warm Friday morning in April we arrived at the center only to find the sidewalk blocked by a very large portion of one of our elm trees. Okay, we didn’t quite arrived, because it blocked the sidewalk in front of the center. The section of trunk was about 15 feet long and 12-14 inches across in places. None of this takes into account the tangle of large branches either. It probably came down in a big gust of wind the evening before, and it was blocking half the of Shepperd Avenue. It was the classic instance of “Lucky no one was around when that fell.”

Youth Services Director Martin Becerra-Miranda has a lot to share right now - three exciting offerings from the Colorado Center for the Blind for blind youth and their families. We like to think of it as a dazzling summer triple!

First Base

FAST Saturday, May 22

Mort the Mouse Goes on an Adventure is an in-person activity at CCB that involves a tactile children’s book by Ann Cunningham and a scavenger hunt with rewards at the end, but strangely no cheese. Read more and RSVP!

Rounding Second

June 21 to 25 Confidence Camp for youth ages 4 to 10

Confidence Camp is back for the summer of 2021! If your blind or visually impaired child between the ages of 4 and 10 would enjoy a one-week day program focusing on independence and lots of fun, then Confidence Camp is the answer!