Sixth-graders prepare, seal time capsules Presque Isle ceremony seen as tribute to newly opened school

PRESQUE ISLE – Sixth-graders at the Presque Isle Middle School sealed individual time capsules Wednesday which they will open when they graduate from the school in June 2008.

The 155 sixth-graders are the youngest attending the school which opened this fall. In June 2008 when they leave the school for Presque Isle High School, they will be the first students to have spent their entire middle school career in the building.

The capsules are actually 10-inch by 13-inch manila envelopes that will be stored at an undisclosed place by English teachers Elaine Hendrickson and Ellen Helstrom until they are opened.

“We had the sealing ceremony at 1 p.m.,” Hendrickson said by telephone Wednesday afternoon. “They were sealed with a sticker, emblematic of ancient sealing wax used to seal documents.

“The students won’t see those envelopes again until their last day at this school,” she continued. “The envelopes include things the students have been collecting since the start of the year.”

Inside the envelopes are current photographs of the students, a page describing their likes and dislikes, a length of ribbon cut to their current heights, a tracing of their hands and feet and name art.

The envelopes also include letters to their future selves, discussing who they are, what’s important to them, and who they think they will be in three years. Also included in each envelope is a page from a Web site and a poem titled “I Am.”

For extra credit the students could include a letter from their parents that would remain unopened and unread, and other small items of importance.

The personal time capsules were sealed after Hendrickson read a proclamation about the project. The proclamation calls Nov. 23, 2005, “Time Capsule Sealing Day.”

It was a precise ceremony, Hendrickson said. Students were told to open the envelopes, place the items in the envelopes, lick the flaps of the envelope and press the flaps down to seal the envelope.

They were also told to close the brass fastener on the envelope before placing them in specially marked boxes.

All seven groups of sixth-graders in the Presque Isle Middle School participated in the ceremony in the new auditorium.