MCHS grads reopen the door on early years

Jordan Rowe and A J Good examine the contents of the time capsule they buried in Grade 1. - Stephen Dafoe Photo

By Stephen Dafoe

Morinville – It was a trek back in time for a number of Morinville Community High School graduates Thursday. Students travelled from MCHS to Notre Dame Elementary School where they started their schooling in Morinville. But the trip wasn’t to walk through the halls of their former public school, but to dig up a time capsule they had placed in front of it back in 2000.

Notre Dame Principal Greg Lamer, who was vice principal of the school back in 2000, said the school had previously buried a time capsule to be opened in 2000 and decided to give it another go.

“We made a decision then we were going to bury another capsule and we were going to put some work in it and some thoughts of kids in Grade 1 who were the first Grade 1 class of the new millennium,” Lamer told students prior to the removal of the time capsule Thursday. “We made a promise that we’d all gather back when you reached graduation.”

MCHS graduates Jordan Rowe and A J Good were given the honour of removing and opening the time capsule on behalf of the former Notre Dame students.

“Opening the capsule after 10 years was definitely a good experience,” Rowe said. “I really don’t remember much about putting in the capsule, but it definitely brought back memories opening it up. Ten years goes by fast when you think about it.”

Inside the capsule was a teddy bear, a Notre Dame T-shirt, students’ colouring work and the thoughts of the then first graders on what they planned to do with their life when they grew up.

For both Rowe and Good those plans have changed considerably. Both graduates are looking to enter the world of business, although Good had planned to be a police officer and Rowe a hockey player. At least that was the plan in Grade 1.

“I wanted to be a hockey player, but unfortunately I’ve had five concussions so that can’t happen anymore,” Rowe said with a laugh. “That’s definitely off the table. I’m just going to go into business, eventually owning my own business.”

But while the graduate looks to his future he has found memories of his past, brought to the forefront by the trip back to his elementary school.

“This was a fun school,” Rowe said of his memories of Notre Dame. “I made a lot of friends and still have those friends to these days.”

Also on hand for the reunion were former Grade 1 teachers Viviane Pezer and Marilyn Ogrodnick, both of who spoke to the students and wished them well in their post-secondary school years.

“It’s great to have this reunion,” Ogrodnick told her former students. “It’s good to hear the laughter and see that you’ve grown up and have such a good joy for life.

For Pezer, who retired from Notre Dame last year, reconnecting with the students was a mixture of new and old. “You’ve grown a lot; your smiles are the same and [for] all of you [I have] very special memories of having you boys and girls, now ladies and gentlemen in my class,” Pezer said.

MCHS’s class of 2011 will hold their graduation ceremony Friday.

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