BANGOR, Maine — Bangor middle school students made history on Friday morning as they buried a class time capsule while honoring a prior class capsule that has been lost and found.
"[It's] really surreal. It's so cool to see the former staff and former students interact with the current staff and current students," 8th-grade social studies teacher Stephen Riitano said.
Current and former students met at the school for an assembly honoring and unveiling where exactly the lost time capsule is.
It all started last year when Riitano found a Facebook post regarding a 1986 time capsule that was supposed to be unveiled in 2011.
After months of research by staff, the group finally pinpointed that the 1986 time capsule was left underneath feet of loam soil and a fence, of what is now the school's softball field.
"It really was a needle in a haystack trying to figure out where this was located," Riitano said.
The school hopes to dig up the 1986 time capsule sometime in the next upcoming months.
"It's very emotional," former student Mike Wood said. "We never thought we would be able to find our time capsule, and now we're a few steps closer to that."
Wood was one of the students who buried the time capsule back in 1986. He recalls leaving a can of "The Jackson Five" branded Pepsi inside.
During the search, Riitano was inspired to pass the torch to his own students. Seventh-grader Isaiah Shearer, among a handful of others, spent the past few months researching what they would like to place in their time capsule.
"We've got some videos, some videos of the school. We've interviewed some students and sort of what their hopes and aspirations will be," Riitano said.
The current time capsule buried on Friday is right underneath the James F. Doughty Middle School sign, paired with a granite stone marking the date it will be unveiled. Faculty will keep the keys for the time capsule inside one of the school's trophy cases.
The 2023 time capsule will be unveiled 25 years later, in the year 2048.
"Whether we find the old capsule or not, the purpose of the reunion in 2011 was done today," Riitano said.
