Center For The Blind Finds Solution After RTD Cuts Bus Line
LITTLETON, Colo. (CBS4) - Budget cuts by the Regional Transportation District won't put the brakes on training for the blind.
The students are able to continue living independently because the Colorado Center for the Blind has purchased apartments along another bus route.
When RTD abandoned one bus route, it stopped students from getting to class on their own. But determination and dollars have put them back on track.
An apartment complex in Littleton includes 24 two bedroom-two bath units. It's on Lowell Boulevard north of Bowles. But what matters most to the new owners is that it's on a bus line that takes them just blocks from the Colorado Center for the Blind.
"Location is key for us because we want to teach our blind students that they can be completely independent," Julie Deden with the Colorado Center for the Blind said.
The center recently purchased the complex to meet a major challenge. In the past students like Jabari Moran learned to navigate the RTD station at Santa Fe and Mineral to get to and from the center. That was part of the training. But in January the 401 line was discontinued. RTD offered a Call-n-Ride.
"It was crazy because sometimes it would get some of the schedules mixed up and people would miss rides or they didn't call back at all," Moran said.
The way to increase mobility was to move.
"It all came together for us," Deden said.
Students get on the bus less than a block from the apartments. They get off across the street a short way down.
In the last few months people very familiar with life's challenges got another lesson in solutions.
"Change is a part of life and change isn't always bad. I think change really generally is a good thing," Moran said.
Next month the complex will be dedicated by being renamed the McGeorge Mountain Terrace after the founder of the center, Diane McGeorge, and her late husband.
