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 Feb. 26, 2008 - The Phoenix Challenge Foundation, Charlotte, NC, is a non-profit organization consisting of industry professional volunteers who are dedicated to encouraging today’s youth to explore the exciting and valuable career opportunities available to them in the flexographic printing industry.
Each year the Phoenix Challenge Foundation hosts its annual International Phoenix Challenge Competition on the Harper Campus at Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte. The 2008 competition, the largest ever, will have 62 high school students from the U.S. and Canada, participating in the 2 day competition. All travel, hotel and meal expenses for the students and their teachers are paid for by the PC Foundation, with funds donated from within and from outside our industry.
This program covers all youngsters, from those who want to get a head start on Graphic Arts for college, to those who go directly into the workforce after graduating high school. It also encourages at-risk students who may drop out of school to consider an interesting, secure, good paying job and to remain in school. In North Carolina alone about 22,000 students per year leave school and do not receive a high school diploma. That equates to well over 1,000,000 youngsters each year in the U.S. who are destined for a difficult struggle to survive in life; confined to minimum wage jobs at best, and at worst - end up in prison.
In addition, only about 50% of those nationwide who graduate high school go on to pursue college studies, and about half of those drop out of college before receiving a degree. That is the equivalent of 75 youngsters in the workforce out of every 100 high school graduates, who do not have a college degree. The Phoenix Challenge can and does make a special difference in the lives of those 75.
To learn more about how you or your company can contribute to or participate in this worthy cause, contact Bettylyn Krafft, Chairman. You may call Bettylyn at: 704-309-3748.
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