Doral Middle newspaper reborn with help from PrintFarm press

May 24, 2010

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BY JOSE CASSOLA
jcassola@MiamiHerald.com

Doral Middle School seventh-grader Daniella Carvajal had never seen her name in print before.

Lack of funding forced Doral Middle School to ax their school newspaper and newsletter more than three years ago.

But thanks to PrintFarm, a full-service printing company based in Doral, the school was able to print its first newsletter, Doralities, in time for the end of the school year.

Last week, Daniella, 13, saw firsthand how her Career Day cover story got printed in an eight-page newsletter on a field trip to PrintFarm, 3511 NW 74th Ave. She and her journalism classmates also learned about the operations of the printing press.

"It's very rewarding for us to see our bylines in print and to see our hard work and dedication come to life," Daniella said.

PrintFarm offered to print Doral Middle's newsletter at no cost to the school through a recent partnership with Miami-Dade County Public Schools to support school initiatives and programs that have been affected by budget cuts.

The owners of the small business, which has been open since 2001, spoke to the students about the basics of the printing industry and showed them how their 28-inch press and metal printing plates work.

Throughout the school year, PrintFarm has also donated supplies, printed invitations for school board events for free -- and more recently helped plant a butterfly garden for Coral Park Elementary.

"My business has been doing well in a poor economy," PrintFarm CEO Albert Alvarez said. "This is my small way of giving back to the community and supporting education."

Laura De la Osa, the language arts department chairperson and yearbook sponsor at Doral Middle, integrates newspaper writing and copy editing into her yearbook course to help build her students' writing skills.

She said the PrintFarm field trip was a good opportunity for her journalism students to learn about the production side of the business.

"Newspapers don't magically materialize," De la Osa said. "My students already knew the editorial side of journalism. This trip helped them understand the other side of the spectrum."

PrintFarm plans on hosting other field trips and performing more hands-on projects with local schools in the next school year. The company is also looking to donate $10,000 worth of printing materials to a local charity.

"If local governments can't get involved and help, it's going to take large corporate companies and small business owners like myself to step up to the plate," Alvarez said.

"At the very end, it comes down to the fact that children are the future."