Jerger Elementary uncovers time capsule
May 12—THOMASVILLE- Thursday afternoon brought about a wave of excitement amongst Jerger Elementary students and alumni, as they unearthed a time capsule buried on March 10, 2000, in honor of the kindergarten class, who would be graduating from college this year.
The time capsule was first discovered by Anna Lehman and her father, Tim, when they were picnicking and exploring the school grounds one afternoon.
Tim then asked Principal Emily Newman what the plans were for the unearthing in August, and the two began researching the time capsule and approximating how far down it was.
To drum up excitement among the students, Newman let the top earners in this year's Booster-A-Thon help dig up the capsule.
"The Booster-A-Thon is our annual fundraiser, and this year kids earned a certain dollar amount for every lap ran, but to encourage participation, we added that they could help dig up the time capsule if they earned the most money for the laps in their grade," Newman said.
On Thursday afternoon, Kindergartener Bo Mills, 1st grader Harper Flynn, 2nd grader Logan Barwick, 3rd grader Oliver Batson, 4th grader Jaxson Flynn and 5th grader Shelby Kate Martin grabbed their shovels and went to digging.
Pre-k participant Emma Kate Bowdon was unable to attend, but still will have the opportunity to see all the artifacts found.
With the help of some alumni, the students were able to uncover the time capsule, which contained three cubes from each grade.
Inside the cubes, items including teacher's aprons, Pokemon action figures, toys, photographs, books, letters, VHS tapes, cassette tapes and recipes for slime could be found.
Some of the cubes also included letters from past students, ones of interest included letters about the Harry Potter Series and a donated Harry Potter book. According to the letters, the third book in the series was currently available, but the fourth one would debut later that year.
While some of the items held up underground, well-meaning "artifacts" destroyed others.
Newman found that one young student had donated some Bath and Body lotion that later leaked onto photographs and letters, making most of them illegible. However, other items were laminated and held up to the test of time.
Newman said she was very pleased with the turnout and the camaraderie among students during the dig.
"I think a lot of the young kids fed off the excitement of the alumni, who remembered putting a trinket in the time capsule," Newman stated.
Jerger now has plans to create a new time capsule that will be buried in December 2023, with plans for it to be opened when the kindergarten class graduates college in 2046.
