The Fayetteville Observer

What a treat it was to get a peek behind the scenes of the Fayetteville Publishing Company. We had the honor of being toured by a knowledgeable, retired gentleman who had worked for The Fayetteville Observe for 45 years. The parents and kids alike found all the history as well as the company's current functionality incredibly fascinating! We started our tour with a small informative video and ended with an up close look at the printing process.  

After finding our seats in the classroom-like-setting at the beginning of our tour, Denise caught a pictue of Mikey reaching back for my hand, making sure I wasn't too far from him. Oh how I adore this picture. It was such a sweet, sweet moment. (I will always be within your reach, sweet boy.)

The photo editor that we were privileged to meet was so very kind and generous with her time. She not only stopped what she was doing to great the children, she invited them around to stand by her side as she gave them an inside scoop to all the exciting things about her job. (I'm almost positive Mikey was close to sitting in her lap at moments.) She showed them pictures of a time laps from a solar eclipse, pictures of the water festival in Beaufort, SC, pictures of a dog who'd lost 50 pounds and so, so much more. She even gave the kids the freedom come up with a topic then searched her database for pictures that related. Oh, how they enjoyed that. My favorite part here was when she challenged the kids to find an interesting picture and create their own story. The passion she had for her job was evident and I'm so grateful she took the time to share that passion with us. There's no telling the lasting impression she made on the kids just by spending a little extra time with them. 

After our visit with the photo editor we headed to the line to witness exactly how a newspaper comes to be. Check out all that ink!...

And all that paper!...

I was fascinated by those large rolls of paper! We learnt that one roll weighs a ton and has over 7 miles of paper on it. The storage room that hold all the paper, when full (jam packed, from floor to ceiling) is only enough paper for 80 days of print. They also took the extra time to show us exactly how stacking them gets done. 

They were captivated by the paper stacking. :) 

Here our tour guide is showing us the machines responsible for stapling and stuffing. 

Mikey seemed to be just as fasinated by it all as I was. 

I couldn't possibly say enough good about this trip. It was so enjoyable. I hated it had to come to an end but I do hope for a chance to visit again in the future!