MACON, Ga. — Starting the day off at Gray Elementary School, Ben Jones found fifth-grader Taylor Clark in her classroom.
"No way!" Taylor said. She could hardly believe she was really a Junior Journalist. Ben said she was shaking.
After we surprised her, Taylor asked if she could say a special thank you.
"I want to say thank you to my grandma. She always taught the greatest thing in life - never let people get you down and never stop following your dreams," she said. So sweet!
Next, Ben and the team took the drive down to Cochran, where we hit the elementary school first.
That's where we found Junior Journalist No. 8 - Abi Goss. This young lady has already been reporting for her school news channel, and she says, "I just wanted to try and see if I could make it, and here I am, I made it!"
We didn't have to go far for our final Junior Journalist surprise. Bleckley County Middle School is home to Will Rodgers.
Will joked that his granddad is named Kenny Rodgers but said he's not THE Kenny Rogers. He's also very excited to be joining our team of Junior Journalists.
That's the final surprise, and our team is now complete:
- Kayden Carraway, Bonaire Middle School (Houston County)
- Owen Bowers, Feagin Mill Middle School (Houston County)
- Kensli Johnson, First Presbyterian Day School (Macon)
- Karmen Hill, First Presbyterian Day School (Macon)
- Saybel Shuster, The Academy for Classical Education (Macon)
- Alyssa Pettigrew, The Academy for Classical Education (Macon)
- Ian Sanders, Rutland Middle School (Bibb County)
- Taylor Clark, Gray Elementary School (Jones County)
- Abi Goss, Bleckley County Elementary (Bleckley County)
- Will Rodgers, Bleckley County Middle School (Bleckley County)
Congratulations to them all, and a big thank you to all the fantastic young people who tried out for the team! This team will serve for 2 years, through the end of the 2023-2024 school year.
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