Inkjet & Digital Printing

Oce Partners with Junior Achievement South Florida to Enhance Education

Wednesday 10. October 2012 - Corporate sponsorship boosts kids' financial literacy and business knowledge

Oce, a Canon Group Company and an international leader in digital document management, today announced an exciting collaboration that will help young people gain valuable insights into the world of work and financial literacy.
Oce joined forces with Junior Achievement (JA) South Florida to help provide life-changing educational experiences both in the classroom and at JA’s new JA World Huizenga Center at Broward College.
For fifth and eighth graders, the program culminates in a one-day once-in-a-lifetime experience that provides real-world insights into the world of business and economic realities. Fifth graders participate in JA BizTown, while eighth graders partake in JA Finance Park.
Every day throughout the school year, volunteers guide 400 area children through these “mini-cities,” each of which features 18 public and private businesses. Finance Park participants visit each business and use the information they receive to create their own personal budget. In BizTown, kids are assigned to specific jobs and receive a “paycheck” for their efforts, which can then be spent at one of the other storefronts.
Oce Provides Support in Two Ways
As part of its community outreach, Oce donated the printing of 80,000 perforated checks for BizTown and Finance Park participants. It also volunteered to print additional collateral for JA South Florida, including teacher guides and student workbooks, as well as tickets, invitations and other materials for key fundraising events. The majority of these are printed on the Oce VarioPrint 6000 Ultra Series and the Canon imagePRESS C7010VP color series.
“We recognized this would be a really great way to give back to the community,” said Francis McMahon, Vice President, Marketing, Production Printing Systems division of Oce North America, a Canon Group company. “It also served as an opportunity to demonstrate Oce’s broad product portfolio’s ability to produce high-end, high-quality pieces.”
But Oce didn’t stop there. Partnering with the Sun Sentinel newspaper to sponsor two BizTown storefronts, Oce donated a Canon 5150 printer and two Canon cameras to each of the storefronts, along with the toner and service on the printers. Children assigned to work at the Oce /Sun Sentinel storefront take the pictures and write the stories that appear in a daily newspaper which is then made available for purchase by other participants. Thanks to Oce, the resulting newspaper is a high-quality full-color souvenir of an unforgettable day.
“Everything Oce has done has been amazing,” said Jodi Danois, director of development, Junior Achievement of South Florida. “They get the big picture. They see the value. They are just awesome to work with!”