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We’re off for the holiday break, so it seems like a good time to share Breaking Bad’s virtual tour of the Center from YouTube. It’s not really as quiet at the Center right now as the day the video was shot — a remodeling project started on Monday, December 22.

It’s also a lot colder!

Thanks to 67 generous donors we raised $12,901 online on December 9, and received another $520 in checks and cash, bringing our total to $13,421!

In addition, the online figure makes us eligible for a small portion of the $1 million incentive fund put up by FirstBank and Community First Foundation. A total of $26.2 million was donated to more than 1600 Colorado nonprofits on Colorado Gives Day 2014

We are grateful to all of our friends who continue to support us with donations ranging from $10 to $3000, but it’s also exciting to be part of the largest giving day of the year in Colorado!

And of course, we were given the opportunity to be featured on 9News with Gregg Moss during the Where in the Town segments on the morning of November 24!

Thanks to our students and staff who passed out flyers, to all of our social media friends who shared our posts, thanks to Gregg Moss and 9News for having our great Center staff members on Denver’s morning TV, and thanks most to FirstBank and Community First for making all of it happen!

(Editor’s Note: Colorado Gives Day seems like a great time to share this. Sam Barasso graduated from the Center in February of 2014. She’s working at a part-time job and getting ready to return to college. This Face Book post reminded us all that blindness isn’t what holds us back – what holds us back is sometimes a lack of skills, and always a lack of confidence in ourselves as blind people. It’s why we do what we do at the Center and in the National Federation of the ������.)

Day 21 of the 30 people I’m thankful for in 30 days goes to the amazing staff at the ������. You guys have become like family. You’ve seen me through many lows and many highs and you never gave up on me. I appreciate that more than I can tell you. You do so much for everyone who steps through those doors and learns from you and you never stop teaching us, even after we’re students.

You teach us so much more than just the subjects you’re required to, you teach us valuable life lessons and you help us all out in so many ways.

Editor’s Note: What follows is excerpted from an August 6, 2014 blog post of , the official blog of the National Federation of the ������ of Colorado. An Arizona high school student, Christian Able was a student this summer and worked 40 hours for the staff. Here’s his reflection on the summer program at the Center and his work with the NFB of Colorado.

Stepping on that plane a month ago I thought everything would be easy and I wouldn’t learn anything this summer. That’s not the case at all. I would say the sleep shades helped me see. At my school I learn a lot about living successfully as a blind individual, but coming here has been a whole other experience.

Students at @cocenter4blind got a chance to experience science in all its disgusting glory.

By Ramsey Scott
November 18, 2014
Columbine Courier

“Yucks!” blended with yucks as the students probed the stomach contents of the dogfish sharks they were dissecting

“I found a claw,” said one student, as he waved miniature pincers in the air.

“I found a fish,” another student said as she held high a half-digested fish body.

A biology class cutting open a formaldehyde-soaked animal isn’t necessarily a unique event. Yet for most of the class at the ������ in Littleton on Nov. 14, it was their first chance to experience what most students take for granted.

“This is my first time doing anything like this. It’s really interesting and a little nasty,” said Nick Crowell, 17, a student at the Colorado Springs-based Colorado School for the Deaf and ������ who came to Littleton for the class. “It’s interesting because we get to see how similar humans are to some animals. And they’re letting us use sharp instruments, and we don’t really get to do that.”

… or and schedule it for Tuesday!

December 9 is just two days away, and it’s Colorado Gives Day! Once a year Coloradoans support their favorite nonprofits with an annual gift … or a recurring gift. We are thankful to you for all your previous support, and as the holidays approach we ask that you think of us one more time on Colorado’s largest one-day online giving event.

You don’t have to wait till Tuesday though. You can go to our Center’s giving page and to post on December 9th.

Maybe after church this morning and before the Broncos game this afternoon?

By clicking on the Give on December 9 button, you still add to our one-day total that qualifies us for a portion of this year’s $1 million incentive fund!

The Center’s own “Breaking Bad” YouTube star, Maureen, talks about the Center and Colorado Gives Day in her latest video … you wish you were there!