CHARLOTTE, NC (July 19, 2004) -- Printers’ Service – PRISCO, a manufacturer and distributor of coatings for the printing industry, donated over $4,700 to The Printing Industry of the Carolinas, Inc. Foundation during the 2003-2004 fiscal year, which ended June 30. PRISCO’s "Pennies by the Pound" program started last year to support PrintForce, the workforce development initiative for the Carolinas’ graphic communications industry that is spearheaded by the PICA Foundation. One penny is donated for every pound of coating that is purchased by a printing company in North and South Carolina. Since the program started, Prisco has donated over $7,000 to PrintForce. PrintForce was started in 1998 with four main objectives: career awareness, to make educators and students aware of the varied opportunities in the industry; increasing the number and caliber of secondary and collegiate graphic arts programs in the Carolinas; continuing education; and recruiting and developing graphic arts teachers. Prisco is one of many suppliers that support PrintForce. Companies such as Mac Papers, xpedx, Pitman Company, Advanced Color Technologies, Coyne Textile Services and The Twin Oaks Team, Inc., believe in PrintForce’s four-prong mission. "One of the greatest challenges our industry faces is finding and keeping skilled employees. PrintForce will bring quality people into our industry by choice, not by chance. We are proud to be a part of this great program," said Patrick Cleghorn, Director of Business Development for Prisco. Without financial support from both suppliers and printing companies, PrintForce simply would not exist. "We are now seeing results of activities PrintForce had five and six years ago," said Ralph Moore, chairman of the PrintForce committee on the PICA Board of Directors. "Without continued financial support from the printing industry, the progress made thus far will be in vain. PrintForce is too important to the health of the entire printing industry in North and South Carolina to just stop funding it." Moore is president of Commercial Printing in Raleigh, NC. Contributors will enable PrintForce to hold Career Awareness Events in new areas. Wilmington’s Career Awareness Event will take place on October 7. Raleigh and Asheville will hold events on October 27 and 28th, respectively. The long-awaited Greensboro event for educators is scheduled for November 2 and the Myrtle Beach event will be held February 21, 2005. The Charlotte Career Awareness Event for students will take place on March 17, 2005 at Graphic Arts The Charlotte Show, the largest regional printing trade show in the Southeast. For more information about PrintForce, call (704) 357-1150 or email [email protected].