About 300 people packed into the bleachers at June Nelson Elementary School on a Friday afternoon — a mix of students and teachers with a few graduates who are now in their thirties. Resting on a table in front of Assistant Principal Corey Shepherd, there was a three-foot-tall metal cylinder.
“We're not just opening a time capsule, we are opening a window into the hopes, dreams and daily lives of students, staff and community members from 25 years ago,” Shepherd said.
Shepherd carefully twisted off the metal lid and removed each item. There were maps and photos of Kotzebue, a blank floppy disk, student essays — enough to fill three folding tables with trinkets and papers. There was even a toothbrush and a Beanie Baby from the capsule.
Soon after, the gym was mostly empty except for the former students who filled the capsule 25 years ago.
Veronica Ferguson read a writing sample by her older brother that was in the capsule.
“‘My name is Nicolas Ferguson. I am eight years old. When I grow up, I want to be a firefighter’— and he sure was,” Ferguson said. “A lieutenant, I think, and then my brother Tristan was chief.”
Reid Magdanz, an elementary school student at the time, said he wasn't really surprised by the capsule’s contents until he saw a script and recording from a play he’d acted in. It was called, “Come Live With Me: An Arctic Play.”
“I was a wolverine,” Magdanz said. “This play had a VHS recording? I had no idea that existed.”
Teacher Faith Jurs remembers the time capsule project. Now she teaches many of the children of students who contributed to the capsule.
“This was a big deal," Jurs said. “The whole millennium change was just momentous for us.”
Jurs said she helped produce the play Magdanz was in..
“We wrote this, we did the sets, we did the costumes,” she said. “It was super cute and adorable.”
Jurs said the play is about a little boy who brings a bug inside his room. After noticing the bug is lonely, he brings in more and more animals to keep them company.
The elementary students wrote the script and high school students designed the set, with moveable mountains and landscapes.
“Those kinds of things we don't see as much because we don't have art and music programs that are thriving like they once were,” Shepherd said.
“It really just goes to show the state of funding for our schools, and that's why our teachers now have to take on such a role of advocacy to to really fight for those resources that help us do those things that are worthy of putting in a time capsule,” he said.
Shepherd said the capsule is more than artifacts from the past, it’s about connecting students with the past and how they will shape the future.
“What do we hope future students will remember about us?” Shepherd said. “Let's make sure we keep building a school and a community that they will be proud to inherit.”
Shepherd said the school plans to create more time capsules in the future. For this one, he hopes to digitize some of the materials and share them on the school’s website and Facebook page.
