The Newshounds were out at the Tennessee Press Association’s convention with their own agenda. The annual summer convention held in Johnson City this year, had a special feature for members’ children. 

The approximately 28 boys and girls, ranging from 4 to 15 years, visited local attractions including the Hands on Museum, Gray Fossil Site and ETSU’s Center for Physical Activity. 

“We wanted to do that because it was the summer time, vacation time, time for kids, time for families to be together so we thought we could get them all together if we put on a camp to take care of their kids. Give them [children] some fun activities to do while they [parents] are in their meetings,” said Phil Hensley, Johnson City Press circulation director.

The group was divided according to age into the Little Newshounds and Newshounds. Each group participated in outdoor activities and journalism related educational events. The younger children made cut and paste newspapers along with newspaper fashions. 

“They are using crayons and markers and making their own. They’ll be doing the fashion show at our banquet. Which will be pretty exciting to see.” Hensley said.

The Newshounds will create a newspaper. “The older children are actually composing their own newspaper with the help of the ETSU communication department. They’ll actually have a printed newspaper,” said Lu Shep Baldwin, director of education with Jones Media Inc. 

The Press Camp was a first for TPA. In previous years children were the responsibility of family members. “It was kind of a mix, where if the husband or wife was a member of TPA, the other spouse would stay behind with the kids, if they got to come at all. Otherwise, you know, it was a babysitting service,” Hensley said.
Hensley thinks the camp is the reason for the convention’s increased attendance this year.

“I thought it was a fantastic idea,” said Carol Parkins from the Milan-Mirror Exchange, who attended with her family.  “A lot of the time our children just see all the hard work and they don’t really understand it. This is showing them, it’s teaching them but in a really fun way, so they are really getting involved.”