Students, staff and community members gathered Monday at Spicewood Elementary School to celebrate its 40th year anniversary, unveil a time capsule from 1994 and create a new legacy with a new time capsule for 2024.
“The celebration brought back a lot of memories, and I actually got teary eyed when the kids were singing the school song,” said Pam Kadgihn, 40-year Spicewood Elementary teacher. “I’m planning on retiring at the end of next year so it’s bittersweet, but I have just loved this school.”
The standout item in the capsule for Kadgihn was the sentimental ribbon that brought her back to the time her daughter spent her days at Spicewood Elementary.
“There was a ribbon with the 20th year celebration that meant a lot to me because that was the year my daughter started kindergarten,” Kadgihn said. “Spicewood is a great school and it has been for 40 years.”
A group of students were tasked with finding the hidden capsule last week during a scavenger hunt that led across the school, eventually ending in the atrium where former teacher and time capsule creator Keith Glowka gave the final clue.
“It was fun opening the capsule,” Glowka said. “What was really fun was coming back to give the last clue to the third-graders.”
Spicewood Elementary fifth-graders Alice Gaede and Bryan Groves were both familiar with some of the capsule’s items, like the Sonic the Hedgehog Sega game and the X-Men action figure. They said it was interesting to see how the school has changed in the last decades.
Following the time capsule opening, each grade selected items to put in a new time capsule what will be opened during the school’s 50th anniversary celebrations in 2024.
The special education group included pictures of current technology. Kindergarten submitted toys. First grade put a sticker book from the movie “Frozen.” Second grade chose to put a Minecraft book. Third grade included selfies of their classes. Fourth grade put a current newspaper. Fifth grade included a class of 2015 outdoor school T-shirt.
