Landon surprised the room when he sang a rendition of Shaboozey’s “Let It Burn” at Ciara’s graduation ceremony last week.
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.
It’s a tradition! Each year, our Home Management instructors take students through weeks of preparation for our annual Thanksgiving feast. This year the feast was held on November 21, and all four of the classes roasted a turkey for the big meal.
But it’s also become a tradition for Delfina, our longest-tenured Home Management instructor, to lead the class in a little dance of anticipatory joy – the Turkey Dance!
Make a Colorado Gives donation that celebrates Duncan Larsen and our blind seniors!
Duncan Larsen’s commitment to instilling confidence in all blind people goes back to her earliest professional years in Nebraska. She was one of our founders in 1988 after moving to Colorado. In fact, Duncan was the cane travel instructor on that storied first day when she traveled to the Center with those first students in a blizzard. Since that time, Duncan has changed thousands of lives.
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!”
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!
(Editor’s Note: Executive Director Julie Deden sent The letter below to the 117 donors to the Colorado Center for the Blind on Colorado Gives Day. That number doesn’t count the twenty or so students, staff, and especially seniors who contributed cash totaling $284. Nor would it include all of our supporters who give in ways that are not monetary. These of course include our volunteers, board members, and many other members in our Littleton community and National Federation of the Blind community whose support we cannot overvalue! So, as 2023 winds to its end and we prepare to hit the ground running in 2024, we want to share this letter with all of you and express our gratitude. And of course, our best to you in the New Year!)
When Fitz came to the center as a student, he really didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life, simply because he had no idea what he could do.
As an Independence Training Program (ITP) student, Fitz has been finding his own identity as a blind person. With what he thought of as a lot of residual vision, Fitz nonetheless was one, like many of us, caught in between the myth that blindness means absolute “blackness” and the hard reality of being stuck because we can’t actually see enough, and we don’t have the skills that many totally blind people use effortlessly every day. It takes a toll on self-confidence and undermines our ability to live the life we each want for ourselves.
As we come to you for support for Colorado Gives Day on Dec. 6, we want to share with you some of our excitement and pride in the growth and accomplishments of our students this past year. Blindness finds us in different ways and at different times of our lives. But what all of our students strive for is independence. That’s true whether it is a young person going out on their own for the first time or someone who has already established their lives, jobs, even families and now must learn blindness skills and come to believe in themselves as blind people. We all want to be independent. Obviously, employment and careers—just feeling like we are productive—are among the most critical factors in achieving personal independence. This is no small achievement since estimates of unemployment for blind, working-age adults range between 65 and 80 percent. Here are what some of this year’s Independence Training Program students are pursuing after graduation.
It’s a tradition! Each year, our Home Management instructors take students through weeks of preparation for our annual Thanksgiving feast. This year the feast was held on November 21, and all four of the classes roasted a turkey for the big meal.
