After opening a 116-year-old time capsule last year, the University YMCA is beginning to build a new capsule and is inviting the public to share their ideas for what to include inside it. The time capsule will be opened in 2073 and will mark the 200th anniversary of the organization.
“As we begin to create this piece of history, we would like to include our members as much as possible in determining its purpose, what we hope to impart to future generations, and what its impact might be in 50 years,” announced the YMCA in a news release.
Late last year, the YMCA opened a time capsule from 1907 in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the organization. Workers found the time capsule during the demolition of Illini Hall in a cornerstone of the former building. The time capsule’s contents were heavily damaged but included news reports from the time, including the University YMCA’s constitution and a newspaper copy of The Illini, now The Daily Illini.
This event gave the YMCA staff the idea to create a new capsule, and after considering several factors, they decided 2073 was the ideal year to open it.
“Fifty years from now will be our 200th anniversary, and it also feels like the right length of time for the students who are here today to come back at a later point in their own lives and be able to reconnect with themselves from the past,” said Jim Hinterlong, executive director of the University YMCA.
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The plan is to place the new time capsule in the cornerstone that housed the 1907 capsule. Next fall, it will be buried outside the northwest corner of the current YMCA building. The cornerstone will be publicly visible and will have a small plaque to commemorate the event. Given the space available, conversations are ongoing about how big the capsule should be.
“We’re going to be using the cornerstone and some other stonework from Illini Hall to create a new structure on our property that will contain the time capsule,” Hinterlong explained. “If we go with the space that is inside of the cornerstone, we have about enough room to put a shoebox.”
Discussions are also still occurring about what to include inside the capsule, and what message it will aim to send to the future. With that, the YMCA is calling on community members to voice their opinions and play a role in constructing the new time capsule. A link to the YMCA’s capsule can be found here.
“We would love for people to help us envision what would be important for the community and this campus to find when they open the time capsule in 2073,” Hinterlong said. “We want to say, ‘When we created this time capsule, these were our values, this is what was important to us, and we hope it’s still important to you.’”
