Charlotte, North Carolina - Global anilox roll supplier Harper Corporation of America is a strong supporter of education, sponsoring and participating in numerous initiatives to raise funds for educational programs, scholarships, and other causes. The company is proud to have served as a purple sponsor for the 20^th Annual Phoenix Challenge High School Skills Competition held March 22-24 at the Harper National Flexographic Campus of Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, NC. Harper has been an active supporter every year since the competition’s inception.

In addition to being a purple sponsor, Harper Corporation of America also donated a total of $40,000 in honor of Ron and Katherine Harper, the company’s founders. “To celebrate the amazing accomplishment of the 20^th year of the high school Phoenix Challenge, Harper donated $20,000 in Ron Harper’s honor,” says Lee Kluttz, Harper president. “As we all know, there was never one without the other, so Harper also donated $20,000 in Katherine Harper’s honor. We are extremely committed to keeping their legacy in education very much alive and will continue to do so.”

The Phoenix Challenge Foundation (PCF) encourages flexographic education to expose students to the flexographic industry as potential careers and gives leaders in the field the opportunity to support their advancement. The high school competition is a hands-on program that lasts three days and tests students’ abilities in prepress, on-press, and general knowledge of flexographic printing theory and graphic arts.

More than 20 teams from across the United States and Canada participated. Their skills were judged by a panel of industry professionals and educators including Lee Kluttz, Harper President; Mark Jacques, Vice President of Manufacturing; and Tony Donato, Product Development Engineer at Harper and Board Member for the Phoenix Challenge Foundation.

In further support of the competition, Harper also remanufactured eight anilox rolls for CPCC’s Harper Flexographic campus for their Comco Cadet press, and two rolls for their Mark Andy Scout press.  These donated services were valued at $7,072 and $2,197 respectively.