For Former HOM Students, 2002 Memories Uncovered In Ireland

By Eliza Hallabeck

For members of Karen King’s 2002 fourth grade class, memories were uncovered in Effin, Ireland, last month, when former classmates Samantha Kent and Benjamin Miles teamed up to discover what was buried in a time capsule, packed with letters and more from their fourth grade class.

By chance, Samantha and Benjamin, 2010 Newtown High School graduates, were both planning a trip to Effin in mid-October while abroad this semester. Samantha, a student at Miami University, is in Geneva, and Benjamin, a student at Muhlenberg College, is studying at the University of Maastricht in Holland.

After realizing they were both thinking of uncovering the time capsule, Benjamin and Samantha decided to meet in Ireland, with shovels.

In 2002, The Bee reported, “A time capsule has been buried at a school in Ireland with which the local students have had a correspondence… In ten years, February 20, 2012, to be exact, any student in the class can travel to Ireland and dig up the capsule that contains letters each student wrote about himself or herself. The letters included current information about their family, friends, likes and dislikes, as well as where they see themselves in the future.”

Before the project began in 2002, Ms King sent a number of e-mails to schools around the world, and the Effin National School, in South County Limerick, was the first to respond.

At the time, Ms King said she wanted her students to experience the world, and technology made that possible.

The Head O’ Meadow students and the Effin National School students shared letters as pen pals, expressing different aspects of their cultures. As The Bee reported, “The students in Ireland talk differently and use words that mean something different here. For example a hot press is a closet, petrol is gas, doing a line is dating, biro is a pen, post is mail, craic is fun, cheeky is bold, and crips are potato chips.”

During the 2001-2002 school year’s winter vacation, Ms King ventured to Ireland, and spent two days visiting the Effin National School. She had the time capsule with her, and buried it during her visit. Ms King also took video of the Effin National School students.

For Samantha, the journey to Effin had its difficulties, she said this week while reflecting on her trip. After flying to Ireland from Geneva, Samantha had two hours to make it from the airport to her train station, in traffic, and once she got to the train station, she realized her tickets had been issued for the wrong day. When she finally made it to Limerick, Samantha reported seeing multiple rainbows, a sign of things to come.

Patrick O’ Sullivan, former head master and teacher of Effin National School, met Samantha and Benjamin at the train station.

A number of things could have gone wrong from there. Samantha said no one knew exactly where the time capsule was buried, but they had a photo of Ms King as a clue. A number of renovations had happened at the school since 2002, and Samantha said they were worried the time capsule would be under cement.

Instead, the suspected location was covered by a garden.

As Samantha and Benjamin made their way to Effin National School, which was closed for the day, they started to notice people. A number of the students who had corresponded with the Head O’ Meadow 2002 fourth graders were gathered to help uncover the time capsule.

It was a magical day, said Samantha, noting the faces she recognized from the VHS tape she saw ten years ago, recorded by Ms King.

“We dug for a number of hours,” said Samantha. “No one knew exactly where it was buried. We just had a picture of Ms King.”

While digging, Samantha said the group was expecting a tin box, but the years had altered the time capsule. The group accidentally dug it up, reburied it, then uncovered it again when they realized what it was.

“It started to get really emotional,” said Samantha. The roughly 20 people gathered for the unveiling were all interested to see the contents of the capsule.

“We rip open the box of letters, and the first thing we want to do is read the letters, but everyone wanted to take photos,” Samantha said.

After photos were taken, it took roughly five minutes to find a letter Mr O’Sullivan had written in 2002 to whomever opened the time capsule.

In an e-mail Mr O’Sullivan wrote to Ms King in 2002, he said, “I hope that I will be alive when some one of your pupils comes round to search for them. I wish all the best of health, happiness, and good fortune to those little children. I said a wee prayer for them all as I buried the parcel, that they would be safe during the next 10 years. I felt a tinge of sadness as I was at this, as I knew that hopes and desires were being buried.”

Samantha found her letter in the time capsule, and she reported Benjamin found his, too. This week Samantha reflected that in 2002 the events of September 11, 2001, would still have been fresh on her mind, but no mention of that day was made by her fourth-grade-self. Instead, the young Samantha wrote about lost loved ones, what she would look like in 2012, and wondered if her older self had a job.

Samantha said Benjamin’s letter to himself mentioned friends that he is still in contact with, and, for him, it was really interesting.

“I’m so much happier and at ease with where my life is going than I ever imagined I would be,” said Samantha, reflecting on her letter.

In 2002, the plan was to have any student who uncovered the time capsule send each of the letters home to the students who had written them. Samantha and Benjamin decided to do something different. When Samantha returns home for her school’s winter vacation, she will invite each of the students from her fourth grade class, and Ms King, to her home for a gathering and unveiling of the letters.

In 2002, then-Head O’ Meadow student Brittany Hankins told The Bee, “Some people may open up their letter and think, ‘My gosh I thought that?’ You may not know that person in ten years. You may not be that same person.”

After traveling to Ireland in 2002, Ms King said her visit to Effin National School was “absolutely the highlight of my trip. It was a win-win for the students all the way around. Even though I was the only one that traveled, I feel everyone traveled there in some way. If it hadn’t been for the Internet, like a window into our class, this would not have happened.”

At the time, Ms King said she hoped she was giving her students an opportunity to someday reflect on their time in fourth grade.

This week, Ms King said a time capsule of letters from students at Effin National School was buried the following year at Head O’ Meadow, and she is waiting to see who ventures over to dig up those memories.

With the 2002 capsule’s contents now with Samantha, Ms King said she is reflecting on a number of things, both professionally and personally, like her former fourth graders will while reading their letters next month.

Before her 2002 journey to Ireland, Ms King said she had been to the country a number of times, but her 2002 trip was different.

“I wasn’t just going there for myself. I was going there for my fourth graders,” Ms King said.

 The 2001-2002 school year was Ms King’s third year at Head O’ Meadow, and her first year teaching fourth grade. Bringing Ireland to her students through pen pals and her trip also marked the first time Ms King helped her students make a personal connection with others across the world.

“Connecting students across continents is a powerful tool that I will use for the rest of my teaching career,” said Ms King.

Ms King said the small idea of creating a time capsule grew into something else in the past decade, seemingly transcending time and connecting people in meaningful ways.

Even in 2002, the idea became larger than itself, Ms King explained, as the fourth graders slowly realized they were writing letters to their adult selves.

Ms King is already working on a plan to welcome any students from Ireland next year who venture over to uncover the time capsule of their letters buried at Head O’ Meadow.