Good luck, Paris; Documenters update; My kid comes to work

Good luck, Paris! 

I said goodbye to our spring intern, Paris Goodman, who helped to write original news stories and post press releases and other public notices to our website.

Paris, a senior at Riverbend High School in Spotsylvania County, is moving on to Texas Christian University in the fall and plans to pursue journalism.

During our final with her advisor, Ms. Gray, Paris told me that her experience at PLN helped her impress her college journalism instructors.

Paris, it was a pleasure working with you, and good luck! If you’re a high school student seeking an internship and want to learn more about local news and web publishing, apply today.

Take Your Child to Work Day

I had so much fun taking my three-year-old daughter, Saoirse, with me last Thursday for Take-Your-Child-to-Work Day. We climbed atop a new bridge to cover a dedication for a $109 million interchange on Prince William Parkway, and we interviewed the JROTC students at Potomac Senior High School in Woodbridge for an upcoming story.

It was such an experience for her to stand in the main hallway during dismissal, and she got to see what a vibrant and diverse place the high school is, from the girls’ dresses, the boys wearing Panthers sports team jerseys, and the students who gathered for an impromptu bongo drum concert. The school even gave her a lollipop — her favorite.

Reporter-Documenters

Our reporter-documenters are hard at work covering local meetings in our community. Lynn Forkell Greene has been documenting Manassas City Council meetings and the meeting about the $300 million Route 28 bypass outside Manassas.

This week on Zoom, we held our first reporter-documenter training session. I introduced the program to perspective documenters and outlined how to cover public meetings, how our systems work, and our payment process.

Please email me if you want more information about becoming a meeting documenter. I’ll schedule another documenter orientation Zoom meeting soon.

Our members make paying our meeting reporter-documenters possible. One annual membership pays for six hours of meeting coverage. Please support our mission of bringing your local news by becoming a member today.

Thank you for your continuing support of PLN.