Article courtesy of MHS PR Liaison, Stephanie Byrne:
When the Class of 2020 got a call Friday, March 13, 2020 that the district would be closed for two weeks to get the coronavirus under control, there was still hope that the school year would continue. There was hope the senior prom and the senior trip to Virginia Beach they’ve been planning would still happen. Two weeks came and went, a global pandemic was declared, and the rest of the year became remote. Computers were quickly distributed and students all over the country were attending school from their home with a new normal created overnight. Senior Prom, Senior trip, Senior honors, Blue & White ceremony, all sports, and the musical Sister Act were all cancelled while we navigated the unknown with a virus that stopped the world. Graduation was reimagined as an individual event that took place over four days. Each student scheduled their graduation ceremony to walk across the stage, with only a few family members and friends in attendance, the maximum allowed. A big ceremony to bring them all together one last time would not happen.
The class officers expressed deep disappointment, in Teams meetings, about their years in school ending so anticlimactically. There was a call to do something special and do something good. The class decided to create a time capsule to commemorate this time and to preserve this historic moment. Sometime starting in May 2020, the class of 2020 advisor Mrs. Byrne set up a box for students to drop off small packages to add to the class time capsule. In addition to the time capsule having all the special items contributed by students, there are bits of history in there that the class will enjoy rediscovering on the day they come together to open it. Amelia Gleyzer, a Class of 2020 graduate, is now a teacher here at Robert J. Kaiser Middle School and she is the official steward of the time capsule. She will keep it safe until the class decides to open it at a future reunion.