Holidays

We’re nine days into December and, not all that surprisingly, 9 is the temperature this morning. Robert routinely interrupts class with overhead PA announcements, requesting some student or staff member to please stop by his desk on a break. This is a sure sign that there’s a Secret Santa something or other waiting for the requested one at Robert’s desk in the lobby.

Hard to believe that we’ll be done for the year in just a week, as always ending the year before the holiday break with a morning brunch and Secret Santas revealed! Before that unwrapping and Secret Santa unveiling, followed by departures across the state and to Denver International Airport, however, we’ll have one more graduation, a FAST Saturday/NFB of Denver Holiday Party on Saturday, and the Seniors Holiday Party on Tuesday, December 13.

So last Friday, staff and students took time to do some holiday decorating, and here’s a peek at that day and how the Center looks right now … on the inside anyway!

Before learning to carve a turkey, a blind person can greatly benefit from learning the bird by touch – how things are connected and how they will come apart. Since our students and Home Management staff started preparations for our own Thanksgiving meal (held a week before the actual holiday) Dishon Spears led students through this discovery process with turkeys that had been cooked and then refrigerated over night.

After that are some shots of all the food we ate! We have a lot to be thankful for!

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.

The holiday season is always a busy time as well as a family time, and it’s no different with our Colorado Center for the Blind family.

Travel Instructor Steve Patten always volunteers to take a hand helping with Christmas cookies. He and student Natalya look sharp in matching red aprons.

While many were preoccupied with Cyber Monday, we brought in our tree and decorated it in the meeting room. Cookies were baking in all three ovens in the kitchen. Even Travel Instructor Steve Patten donned a red apron to help out. Meanwhile, out at the front desk, Robert solemnly presided over the drawing of names for the Secret Santa exchange as he does each year.

We at the Colorado Center for the Blind appreciate your support! As a result of Colorado gives day we raised over $20,000. These funds will make it possible for us to serve more kids this summer in our Confidence camp and will also provide us with funds so that we can meet more seniors who are losing their vision and show them that they can still enjoy their lives and be independent.

Our message got out to the Denver Metro area as we also appeared on 9News the morning of December 8 in seven segments with the National Sports Center for the Disabled, showcasing our students and staff running the NSCD Moves obstacle course, as well as working in the shop and talking about seniors.

There are so many ways that we receive support from all of you from financial assistance to telling others about the center so that they can find the training, confidence and community that they need to move forward in their lives.

While we received exciting coverage on 9News at the Center along with National Sports Center for the Disabled (NSCD) for Colorado Gives Day, and tracked our total as it rose, Tuesday, December 8 was a lot like every other day at the Center. That is, business as usual while potentially life-altering – one small step at a time.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

On Monday, November 24 we had a tremendous opportunity to share our message and our purpose on Denver’s 9News during five very short, but absolutely live, segments of “Where in the Town” with morning news anchor Gregg Moss.

Gregg got what we at the Center are about. He and our five featured instructors made it clear that we teach not just skills, but confidence, with the goal being independence and self-sufficiency.

It’s one more thing that the Colorado Center for the Blind has to be thankful for this year, and we want to share the link. Maureen, Chip, Tom, Chris & Mo were awesome! So was Gregg on the chop saw!

9News Video: Helping the Blind Lead Independent Lives