MAY 2008 UPDATE

GOLD and SILVER

Students in the  "FLEXO IN HIGH SCHOOL" program, at Gordon Graydon, have once again attained an incredible achievement. I am  proud to announce that our Flexo students have won a GOLD and a SILVER medal in  the 2007 FTA International Printing excellence awards. The awards were presented  at the FTA Forum Flexo printing conference held in Dallas this week. A team of  four grade 11 students, Hannah Plavnick, Ian Zavorotony, Sunny Murad and Piyumi  Hiyara printed the Gold submission. Nathan Plavnick who graduated last June printed the Silver submission. Nathan is the  older brother of Hannah and is completing his first year in the Ryerson Graphics  Communication Management program.

ADULT GRADUATES

We are pleased to announce that our Spring night school program ended April 17th with 9 adults from Dover Cup, Sonoco, Kruger and Sun Chemical writing and passing the FTA  level I certification exam plus an additional 6  adults from Dover Cup, Design Label Systems and Heidelberg were certified as FTA level II. The next  session of night school will commence the third week of September for the Level  l and two weeks later for Level II. Any one that is interested should contact me.

CAREER DAY & OPEN  HOUSE

Just a reminder that our Career day is scheduled for December 12th, 2008. Please mark this in your calender as we would really  appreciate your involvement in promoting Flexography. More details to follow.

BURSARIES

DUPONT the Canadian Flexographic Training Committee  (CFTC) and the Packaging Association of Canada (PAC) have contributed money to a bursary fund here at Graydon. Students continuing in a Flexo related post secondary education program will be applying with a deadline of June 5, 2008 for submissions. Application packages are available from me. If you would like to  contribute to the fund please contact me as we could always use it to provide more support to our students. We have about 5 students accepted into the Ryerson program at this point.

THANK  YOU

I would like to thank all of the wonderfull people and companies that support our efforts here at Graydon. The  materials, cash donations, presentations to students and all of the involvement of the many individuals is invaluable.The students and myself greatly  appreciate all that is contributed.

 

APRIL 2008 UPDATE

GREAT  NEWS

We just returned from  Charlotte, North Carolina where we competed against 42 other students from all  over the United States and 2 from Winnipeg at the 11^th annual North  American International Flexo Printing competition known as the Phoenix  Challenge. Our four students, HANNAH PLAVNICK, JYOTI BRAR, IAN ZAKOVOROTNY, and DAXAL DESAI were up to the task. The 1st place GOLD MEDAL was awarded to HANNAH  and JYOTI and the 2nd place SILVER MEDAL was awarded to IAN AND DAXAL with a 2 point spread, out of 500 between them. A $1000 bursary was awarded to each first place contestant and $500 bursary to each second place team member.  Winnipeg Technical College was awarded the 3rd place bronze medal at just 12  points off 1st. This is a wonderful event and a life changing experience for  many of the students who compete. 

A special thank you to Beth Potter of Schawk who made a personal donation, Engineered Coated Products,  Design Label Systems, Jones Packaging and Sun Chemical for helping to make this all possible by supporting this very special event with cash donations.

This is the second consecutive year that Graydon students have brought home the Gold and Silver medals. Hannah’s older brother and Graydon Alumni Nathan Plavnick, who is now completing his 1^st year of the Graphics Communication Management  program at Ryerson University, was awarded the silver last  year. 

Nathan is now part of a 6  person team lead by Graydon Alumnus Emad Chibli, representing Ryerson University at the first ever University/College Phoenix Challenge competition held at the FTA Forum in Dallas Texas on April 26, 2008. Unlike the High School event, the University Phoenix Challenge participants are required to pay for the airfare and hotel rooms. Emad has asked me to let you all know that they require financial help to send these students. If anyone is willing to help the only Canadian team of students financially please contact me. I believe they are about $2,000 short.

PROGRAM  UPDATE

We have 5 grade 12 FLEXO students that have applied to Ryerson's GCM program and 3 have had letters of acceptance so far. Most of these students would like to obtain summer jobs in  our industry. Typically they are available the last week of June. If anyone  would be interested in hiring a summer student please let me  know.

NIGHT  SCHOOL

The next session of  adult FLEXO night school will commence on September 18 for level 1 and October 2  for level 2. Contact me for a registration form. We may be offering the level 3  for the fall if we have enough interest.

 

MARCH 2008 UPDATE

Cudos and a heartfelt thank you to Design Label Systems Inc. of Mississauga, Engineered Coated Products (ECP) of Brantford and Schawk Inc. of Mississauga for supporting the Phoenix challenge with a cash donation.
 
I apparently missed the Subject line in my last message so I am resending a copy of my last email now as some did not receive it.
 
The GRAYDON program exists solely on cash donations from Industry and proceeds from our night school program. The unique PHOENIX CHALLENGE competition is also supported soley through donations from Industry and provides an opportunity for all youth to attend and compete without enduring any costs to the students or the school programs.
 
A quick update on our current activities.
We have four students, two female and two male, preparing for the "TOP GUN" style Flexographic student competition known as THE PHOENIX CHALLENGE, held annually in Charlotte, North Carolina where we will compete against many teams representing programs throughout the United States and the Winnepeg program. We will travel to Charlotte on April 2 and return on April 5 2008 at no cost to the students.
 
Attached is a form for information and a way of donating to support students at this wonderful "STUDENT FLEXOGRAPHIC OLYMPICS" type competition.
 
PLEASE consider supporting this, at some level, as together we CAN and WILL make a difference.
 
www.phoenixchallenge.org