Linda Sliworsky grabs items to put into the time capsule. Photo by Cindy St-Laurent.
As part of Port Coquitlam’s centennial celebrations, a time capsule was buried in Veteran’s Park Oct. 16.
The time capsule event was created by Poco’s Spirit Committee , which was established for the 2010 Olympics. Linda Sliworsky, volunteer at the Port Coquitlam Heritage and Cultural Society, who is also a committee member, said the committee thought “…towards the end of the year, why not have the time capsule sort of thing where we’ve got some memories of the year and some memories of what people in the future need to know about what we were like.”
Port Coquitlam’s 100th anniversary was March 7, but the city decided to bury the time capsule later in the year. Sliworsky said that the date was late enough so that the weather was still relatively warm and it was right after Thanksgiving, where people were more likely to come to the event before they went back to their busy lives.
The time capsule will be dug up in the year 2038, after being buried for 25 years. The capsule was originally going to be unearthed after 100 years, but Sliworsky said the committee wanted to be around when the capsule was opened. They also felt that it would be fun for the children who contributed to the capsule to see their work once they are older.
The hardest part of the event Sliworsky said, was getting people to submit items. Posters and information about the event were spread online in order to get submissions but not many responded.
Linda Sliworsky and Brian Hubbard, president of Poco Heritage, bury the time capsule.
A few schools from the community did provide items. Riverside Secondary School’s drama department provided flash drives and DVDs. Sliworsky said they contain skits that show “their interpretations as to what they would like to see in the future and what they want people to know.” James Park Elementary, which also recently celebrated its 100th anniversary, included a banner from its own festivities.
Some other submissions were a proclamation from the city, t-shirts, water bottles, a centennial year hockey puck and news articles about the centennial events from the Tri-City News and the Vancouver Sun.
The Spirit Committee decided to submit some of the items above as a group. If she included something herself, Sliworsky said it would be something natural that could be preserved, such as the city flower, which is an azalea called the “Pride of Poco.”
