Colorado Gives Day

Thanks to each of you for your donations to The Colorado Center for the blind during this Colorado Gives season! We believe blind people can do anything and we infuse this belief system in to our youth, adult and older adult programs. Our students pick up on this and gain belief in themselves. Our positive philosophy about blindness sets us apart from other blindness training programs. This  is the key to the accomplishments  of our students and their success is our success!

We want to again thank the Bob Bell family for providing us with a $25,000 match. This match  propelled us to a total of $64,526 in Colorado Gives Day donations - the most we have ever received!

And so, as we wind down 2025, we want to express our deep and humble gratitude for your generosity. Your support helps us ensure that we can provide the highest quality blindness training possible and that our students will live the meaningful lives they want!

We wish each of you a happy holiday season!

Julie Deden

Executive director 

Working here, we get to witness the moment when our students stop asking “what if” and start asking “what’s next.”

That’s what your Colorado Gives Day donation supports.

Not just programs. Not just services.

People. Blind People rewriting their own stories- finding confidence, community, and the freedom to build the lives they want.

Support the Colorado Center for the Blind this Colorado Gives Day. Between now and Tuesday, December 9, your donation is also matched by a generous $25,000 challenge from the Bob Bell family. So, double your support and help someone discover that they can still pursue their dreams!

Doug believes in himself as a blind teacher, and a future educator of blind kids. And you know what? He’ll pass that belief in himself and his students on to them, just by being Doug. Because kids love Doug!

- "The training and mentoring I received from blind instructors at the Colorado Center for the Blind has been invaluable,” says Doug. “It gave me the skills and confidence to believe in my abilities and embark on a new career path."

We believe in blind people like Doug. You can support the Colorado Center for the Blind’s positive impact rooted in that belief. Donate to Colorado Gives Day between now and December 9.

And the $25,000 match is still active, so giving now doubles your impact!

Waiting to receive his Freedom Bell, Doug (right) grins at something Director Julie Deden says about him during his graduation in July, 2025. He was about to start a new job with Littleton Public Schools and a graduate program at the University of Northern Colorado.

When a parent finds out that their child is blind, it can be devastating and easy for them to believe that their child will not be able to be happy or to really experience their life. It’s understandable – how many of us really know first-hand about blindness, or even know a blind person?

At the Colorado Center for the Blind, we work with parents and their kids so that they realize that being blind is not a tragedy at all and that their kids will live rich fulfilling busy lives. The key to this message is our community of confident, successful blind people who believe that blind and low vision kids can do anything with their lives!

In November, we came together with blind youth and their families (and some teachers) for our annual Thanksgiving youth event. We put blind and low vision youth in the kitchen with capable blind role models to do some baking. The blind kids loved deciding if they wanted to bake apple pie or snickerdoodle cookies. One five-year-old loved every minute of this baking time, and she insisted on using the hand mixer.

Confident blind role models are key for youth to develop positive attitudes about their own blindness. With ingredients and utensils laid out on the counter, Ciara provides direction as Matthew stirs eggs in a mixing bowl and Jacob anxiously waits for his turn to mix. The recipe was Pumpkin Spiced Snickerdoodle and both boys took a bag of cookies to share at home.

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.