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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
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 3850 W 69th Pl
 Westminster, CO 80030
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 (303) 429-2227

Yes, we’re pleased and excite to be the host site for the Braille Challenge for 2017! Fifteen Metro-area students ages 6 to 17 are here to demostrate their skils in reading, writing and more using Braille. It’s our third year to host the Metro Challenge, which is sponsored by the Braille Institute of America and coordinated in Colorado by the Colorado School for the Deaf and the ������. Last week, students in Colorado Springs met the Braille Challenge as well.

This afternoon the State Rehabilitation Council met at the Center. The SRC is required of each state’s Vocational Rehabilitation program, and includes members from across the state representing many disabilities.

Where were all our students, you may well ask. They were displaced today, working in all their classes from our McGeorge Mountain Terrace Apartments.

Unheard of, we know. But our 2016 summer students gained so much confidence they decided to spoof their summer counselors and Brent in an imagined staff meeting. Shockingly accurate …

We’re in our final week – final days, really – of the 2016 year at the ������. It’s not exactly like winding down, but more like an all-cylinders-open surge for the finish line.

Alejandro went on a support drop yesterday, and is cooking a big meal tomorrow. Ryan served his mini-meal – fifteen people and French onion soup – while down in the gym another class punched, kicked and potato-tossed each other on their way to earning their orange belts in Karate from Karate Denver. We also delivered holiday cookies and other holiday treats to Littleton police, fire and planning personnel, as well as to the shopping assistants at the Neighborhood Wal-Mart.

Our 2016 Colorado Gives Day was our most successful ever, and we want to thank all of our friends and new acquaintances who helped make it so!

In all, we received $15,230 via the online Colorado Gives web site, and all of that counts toward a share of the $1 million Incentive Fund offered by First Bank and the Community First Foundation. In addition, we received another $11,275 in checks on December 6 from supporters who don’t favor online giving for one reason or another. No matter, we’re excited and thankful for all our donations, which totaled $26,505!

We’re still getting a few checks and online donations, and all these funds go toward the costs of programs like our Confidence Camp for Kids (see photo above), challenge recreation and special programs for seniors.

Philosophy bakes no bread. Philosopher Bertrand Russell said that. But a wise man we know once pointed out that no bread is baked without philosophy. Tabea graduated from CCB in 2016 and has gone on to graduate school. She knows that our belief in our blind students is the yeast that leavens the bread of our students’ confidence and self-determination! Indeed, in our Senior and Youth Programs as well!

Please

Like Martin and Vika, blind people from five to ninety-five are on the move every day at the ������!

Please

Every year, Professor Harrison arrives about an hour before the class is to begin and lays out the specimens – about a dozen dog sharks or dogfish, all between two and three feet in length. Along with them are scalpels, probes and vinyl gloves. At some point in the morning, we’ll learn that sharks don’t sleep—they can’t stop moving water over their gills or they’ll suffocate, and that in the UK and Ireland it’s a fair chance that they are the main ingredient of your fish and chips.

After examining the outer anatomy, like dorsal fins, tail, nose and gills, it’s time to turn the sharks over and make an incision. Inside the body cavity students found the lungs, heart, stomach, liver and sex organs. At least two of the sharks had the undigested remains of their last meal.

This year’s group included about nine kids and a fair sprinkling of our own students as both learners and mentors.

So this is how Tuesday goes at CCB sometimes.

First thing this morning Alie Mays came for our “Birding by Ear” class. Seven of us reviewed recordings of local bird songs, then walked over to Sterne Park, where we heard mallards, doves, goldfinches and of course Canada geese. Today’s mascot was the belted kingfisher, an unexpected find. He just kept calling and calling as he circled over the pond.

In the Senior Resource Room something was happening called sugar scrub. Jenny Callahan led Seniors in making sugar scrub, using sugar (surprise) and oil and scents like lavender and almond. Whatever it is, it sure sounded fun to make, judging by the giggles and cackles.

It’s that time again! Colorado’s largest day of online charitable giving is scheduled for Tuesday, December 6, and again featuring an incentive fund of $1 million from the Community First Foundation and First Bank.

It’s that time again! Colorado’s largest day of online charitable giving is scheduled for Tuesday, December 6, and again featuring an incentive fund of $1 million from the Community First Foundation and First Bank.

You might remember that CCB was lucky enough to be featured on 9News’ coverage of the statewide giving program in 2014 and 2015. We don’t expect to be on TV again this year, but we do count on and appreciate the contributions we receive on Colorado Gives Day each year. Most importantly, donations made online on December 6 help to qualify us for a part of the $1 million Incentive Fund – making your donated dollar go even farther!