A group of Kelowna Secondary School students had the opportunity to hold history in their hands Tuesday afternoon as they revealed the contents of a time capsule that had been filled and sealed before they were born.
The time capsule had been a project of the KSS Interact and Kelowna Rotary Clubs that left a snapshot of the history of the school buried on the KSS grounds in July 2005.
Interact is a service club sponsored by a Rotary Club for ages 14 to 18.
Nobody present Tuesday had any idea what was in the capsule, but Parker Rempel and Tianna Roberts, co-presidents of the KSS Interact Club, were excited to see the contents.
Once heavy equipment lifted the cement lid revealing the time capsule, students scrambled to remove the plastic tote that had been draped in a bright green Interact shirt.
Despite the tote being sealed, items in the box were damp.
There were gasps and laughter as Interact members sifted through the plastic tote of school memorabilia, not just from 20 years ago, but from as far back as 1937.
There were several packets of photographs documenting life around the school.
As well, there were letters written by students 20 years ago that not only offered a look at their lives, but also included their predictions for the future. Among the predictions was that the United States would start a war.
Reading the letters was initially a challenge for the students, since they were written in cursive.
Mementos included a chocolate bar and program from the opening of the new KSS after the school moved to its current location on Raymer Avenue in 2002, teacher and student identification cards and a rugby shirt.
Students couldn鈥檛 identify some items, wondered at the photograph negatives and scrambled to find a CD player to listen to the disc of music recorded by the school band of 2005.
Fane Trigges is on the verge of retirement after teaching at KSS since 1993.
While fashion and culture have changed, Trigges said school hasn鈥檛 changed that much.
鈥淭he students are the same,鈥 he said. 鈥淭hey want to graduate. They want to have fun. They want to have friends.鈥
Students were surprised to find items that went back further than 20 years, including old yearbooks.
鈥淭his is amazing to see all this stuff that鈥檚 part of KSS鈥檚 history,鈥 said Sam Iaboni, an Interact member.
The time capsule revealed references to classes such as philosophy that had faded into obscurity, as well as a home economics textbook that elicited laughter.
The items in the capsule didn鈥檛 just surprise the students. One Rotarian found a family link from the past.
Bruce Henderson, who was a member of the Kelowna Rotary Club when the time capsule was sealed in 2005, was surprised to see his late father鈥檚 1937 yearbook in the time capsule.
The book was accompanied by a hand-written letter from his father, who had joined Rotary in 1950.
鈥淭hat is so crazy,鈥 said Henderson. 鈥淚 had no idea.鈥
The items in the time capsule provided students with a view into their school鈥檚 past.
鈥淚t makes me inspired to make one of our own,鈥 said Kate Aubin, an Interact member. 鈥淚 think reading the letters is probably the coolest part for me.鈥
But with only a handful of days of school left, the Grade 12 Interact members are going to try to get next year鈥檚 club to put together a time capsule. That way, perhaps in 20 years they can return to watch the reveal of their messages from the past.