CORNER BROOK — Emotions were running high at C.C. Loughlin Elementary School Tuesday evening, as 23 former students dug up a time capsule they planted 12 years ago.
The former French Immersion kindergarten class gathered at a spot where a tree once stood, marking the place where they buried their treasures.
“It’s heart wrenching for all of us,” said 17-year-old Stephanie Maugers. “Our class been like a family since kindergarten.”
The students, who each took a turn digging up the dirt of the school’s front lawn, will walk across the stage this week to accept their diplomas as high school graduates.
Tuesday was also the date the students wrote their last French immersion high school exam.
The students were surrounded by parents and former teachers, who talked about how fast the years had passed.
Gord Davis was there with a video camera in one had and a smile from ear to ear.
His daughter Meghan is one of the students who was in the class.
Davis said digging up the time capsule is one of the many highlights of his eldest daughter’s graduating week.
“It makes it hard on us,” he said. “But everyone has to grow up.”
He said the most emotional part of the event is seeing what great, supportive friends the students have remained through all the years.
“You’ll never see a bunch of kids like this,” he said. “They are all honour students and a real close group.”
Maugers agrees, saying this week has been an emotional one for her.
She can’t remember what she put in the capsule, but can remember all the contents were put in a foot-long medal tin shaped as a crayon, inside a piece of white tubing.
As Mauger helped take the things out of the large crayon, she held her nose with the stench of water-logged paper.
Luckily, the water damage did not totally ruin the contents.
Inside the capsule was a sheet each student filled out, saying what they wanted to be when they grew up, school newsletters and clippings from The Western Star.
Mauger’s contribution said she wanted to be a teacher when she was five years old, but now, she has changed her mind to study politics.
Many of the students plan to study in different areas than the ones they originally thought in kindergarten.
“We’re all going our own way,” she said.
