Granum school principal Randy Bohnet helped student Brody Barber use bolt cutters to open a time capsule sealed in 1994.
A time capsule prepared in 1994 and forgotten about for years was finally opened earlier this month at Granum school.
In addition to a daily newspaper and Granum newsletter, the time capsule was filled with samples of student writing as well as predictions about their Grade 9 classmates.
Byron Neu, who was teaching at Granum in 1994, attended a ceremony held Dec. 17 prior to the time capsule being opened.
Neu said the time capsule was created as a chance for Granum students to “leave a trail” of what was going on in 1994 for future students at the school.
Neu tasked area farmer Harvey Donahue with welding a metal box as the time capsule, which was closed and locked with a padlock.
Neu admitted that with the passage of 30 years, his memory of the events is cloudy.
“It’s too bad none of the kids from that class are here,” Neu said.
Neu said the time capsule was intended to be opened 25 years later, in 2020 but subsequent events led to it being stored and forgotten.
Former Granum school principal Lynne Penniket told the students that in 1994 Granum had two schools.
The Grade 1-4 students were housed in the elementary school, and the Grade 5-9 students were housed in another building.
Once it was filled and sealed, the time capsule was stored in the building where the Grade 5-9 students were located.
The school situation in Granum changed in the early 2000s when the provincial government funded a new $3.3-million building filled with the latest in technology to house the Grade 1-9 students.
That new 2,099 square metre school contained eight classrooms, library, career and technologies studio, gymnasium, food studies and hot lunch program room, common area and workroom.
New technology at the time included laptop computers and smart boards.
“As the time capsule will show you, times do change,” said Penniket, whose son Colin was one of the students who helped to fill the time capsule.
The time capsule was only discovered by accident when students Seth Brobbel and August Litchfield were cleaning out a storage room.
At the Dec. 17 ceremony, students played a trivia game to decide who would get the privilege of helping to open the time capsule.
The surprise discovery of the time capsule and the excitement that surrounded it opening, was valuable.
“It helps us connect with the people of the past,” Granum school principal Randy Bohnet said. “There is a lot of history in the Granum school . . . and this gives us an opportunity to be thankful for that.”
The contents of the time capsule will be displayed in the school common area into the new year for anyone who is interested.
Granum school students of the future will have a similar experience to the one enjoyed by their peers in 2024.
“We are going to put our own time capsule together,” said Bohnet, who invited students to provide ideas of what should go inside.
