“You’re living through history,” said Alicia Heinzle. “Something we’ll never forget, I’m sure.”

Heinzle is the children’s services librarian at the Champlain Public Library in Vankleek Hill. Last month, while doing her advance planning for the month of September activities for children at the library, Heinzle was inspired to offer a “How to Make a 2020 Time Capsule” project for children, ages five to 12. Adults are welcome to take part in the activity also.

The activity program is scheduled for live demonstration Thursday, September 17, at 4:15 p.m. through the library’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/Biblioth%C3%A8que-Champlain-Library-159615927424618/. The link will remain active on the Facebook page for anyone who wants to watch the demonstration at a later date.

Heinzle shows her young viewers how to make their own personal time capsule, using either a Mason jar, a coffee can, or a large yogurt container, and offers suggestions about some of the things they might put inside it for safekeeping.

“Little things to remind them about what they’d be doing if they weren’t in quarantine,” she said, “and things that they did do this year.”

She used her own time capsule samples as an example.

“Seeds, because we’ve been gardening a lot this year in my family,” she said. “Maybe a pressed flower, and a rainbow drawing, because I don’t think that (symbol) will ever get old.”

A playing card from the deck of cards used for all the games of Go, Fish! she and her children played through the year, and a list of her personal goals for the next five years.

The aim of the build-your-own-time-capsule activity is to encourage children to think of what they’re doing now and what they might be doing as they get older five years from now. When they finish assembling their time capsules, children can hide them in an out-of-the-way place around their homes. Possible locations are in the attic or the basement or the garage, or they can even bury their time capsule in the back yard if they want. The goal is to be able to retrieve the capsule in 2025, sort through the contents and think about all they’ve done during the past five years.

“I love that they’ll be able to see how much they’ve grown,” said Heinzle. through the library’s Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/Biblioth%C3%A8que-Champlain-Library-159615927424618/