Cane Travel

By Thursday, Jessica was challenging herself to travel independently between classes while wearing sleep shades.

We want to give a farewell wave to Jessica Edmiston, who spent Monday through Thursday here at the Center, not just observing, but working under sleep shades all week, going to classes with student mentors and working on the basics of Braille, Assistive Technology, cooking and travel. And as it happened, she was here to witness three graduations, including partaking of the meals prepared for 60 by the graduates, and the awarding of their Freedom Bells!

It’s no small deal for Jessica to take a week to do this, since she’s the Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind Birmingham Regional Center Director. That’s a long title, and it has a lot of responsibility to go with it, but her center contains a recently established Structured Discovery program, which is (the methodology and philosophy we employ here at CCB, called the Alabama Freedom Center for the Blind.

Safe travels to our friends from Rustin as they head back to Louisiana on Friday! Two faculty members and five graduate students in Orientation & Mobility from Louisiana Tech University spent this week in the Denver area, observing and working with our staff, exploring the Metro area and testing out the RTD system.

“Is Suzie here this morning?” asked Daniel yesterday at morning announcements.

“No!” protested Suzie

This is how it goes sometimes near the end of a student’s program – things can get bunched up a bit. Suzie will graduate on May 10. On Tuesday this week, she completed her Monster Route – traveling to four places she’d never been before in four Metro-area cities. That’s a big, big day, and her protests were certainly as much about the fact that she was still a little tired as it was about the fact that it was raining yesterday morning.

You wouldn’t have needed to be told that Dorine’s Cinnamon-Pudding Cake was an award-winner if you had been anywhere near the Center’s kitchen this afternoon. It’s our spring Seniors in Charge week, and we have five dynamic seniors determined to keep living the lives they want. This afternoon, of course, they were cooking and baking under sleepshades, and the smell of that cake had mouths watering out in the lobby and beyond!

Sleepshades are optional, though encouraged, in the five-day training for seniors. This group is pretty game though, and all are giving them a good workout this week.

We have a lot of students nearing the completion of their training programs at the Center, and that always means a steady stream of drops and support drops each week. On Wednesday, C.G. did her final and independent drop, getting back to the Center in no time, even though she naturally had no idea where she was when she was “dropped.” Mike did his support drop the same morning, and Friday Chaz went on his support drop too. Both were successful.

Congrats all!

Editor’s Note: An update from our Youth Services Director Brent Batron about what’s coming tomorrow and through the summer for blind youth.

Usually the second Saturday of each month is the FAST program at the Center, however this month we will be participate in the Pioneers Easter Egg Hunt! Information is below.

Other upcoming events include:
April 21-23
 Winter Outdoor Adventures at Estes Park—This is a great time for kids to spend time with friends that they do not get to see all the time as well as make new ones. There will also be lots of good blind adult role models as well as teachers of blind students. This will be a lot of FUN!
May 13—FAST Program will be all about cane travel. 10 – 2 and lunch is included.
June 5 – 23—Confidence Camp
June 9 – August 4—Earn & Learn High School Program
June 9 – August 4—Summer for Success College Prep Program
June 12 – June 30—Initiation to Independence Middle School Program

Pioneers Beeping Egg Hunt

Saturday, April 8, 2017

Location
 The Elks Lodge
 Address
 3850 W 69th Pl
 Westminster, CO 80030
 Phone
 (303) 429-2227

No, you won’t be singing any Disney song when you go under the pool.

It’s dirty and dark and forgotten … Except by Travel Instructor David Nietfeld, who today took the Philosophy class on an historical tour of the Center, which was formerly a YMCA. Since part of the student body was off at a boxing gym and another in our gym doing Martial Arts, David had a smaller contingent to take on his tour. He explained where there were once windows overlooking the raquetball courts, whose office once were locker room showers and whose had toilets at one time.

Last week was busy with drops and support drops.

The “Drop”, or independent drop is one of the two final requirements of our cane travel instruction. Ryan and Trevor both completed theirs last week, having been dropped somewhere in the Denver Metro area and permitted one question on their trip back to the Center.

The “support drop” is more or less a dress rehearsal for the independent drop. Everything is the same except that the student’s travel instructor goes along. The instructor, by the way, doesn’t know where they are either and also wears sleepshades. Both Julie and Suzie completed support drops last week.

The drop is the culmination of many months of instruction and daily practice of those travel skills, including how to orient, problem-solve, analyze and cross many kinds of intersections and how to find a bus stop. The confidence students gain from completing this requirement is obvious the minute they walk in the front door of the Center, having succeeded, and the announcement goes over the public address system congratulating them!

We were pleased to have three professionals from Blind Low Vision Services, part of Colorado’s Dept. of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR) at the Center for training this week. We spent four days together exploring every topic we could think of, including cane travel and cooking under sleepshades. We’ll let them introduce themselves and the meal they cooked on Tuesday for themselves and our staff involved with the training. For the record, it was top shelf, and so are they!