Pohakea Elementary School Unearths 25-year-old Time Capsule
Those who attended Pohakea Elementary School during the 1987-88 school year will have a chance to relive the past this Saturday.
From 1 to 3 p.m., the contents of a time capsule that was placed in the ground in 1988 will be displayed during an open house in the school library for former students and staff.
Staff from the Ewa Beach school, along with a committee comprised mainly of retired teachers who worked there in 1988, recently dug up the time capsule and are excited to share memories with the community.
The time capsule project was initiated in 1988 by a n enrichment class under the guidance of teacher Sharon Kamita. Each class from kindergarten through sixth grade selected items that signified what they wanted future students to know about the school. These included a map of what the school and the surrounding area looked like in 1988, songs that students had recorded on cassette tapes, notes from students about their future goals; pictures and slide shows of each class, student writings and a school bulletin.
Tasha Santana, who was in third grade at Pohakea in 1988, is on the capsule committee as a student representative and has been reaching out to her former schoolmates via social media.
“We have a lot of people talking about it,” said Santana. “Some of them are getting pretty excited about it. A lot of them still live in the community and even have kids that attend Pohakea now. It is pretty exciting to get everybody back together.
“Nobody can believe that it has been 25 years,” added Santana, who is now 34 and works as a program director at the YMCA.
On Nov. 19, the school will have an assembly at 1 p.m. for current students to take a look into their school’s past. The committee also is looking for volunteers – especially former students – to help out at the assembly.
The committee believes that while current students may find a lot of things have changed, they also will discover that many things are similar to today.
“I am looking forward to reminiscing, talking about memories and just seeing where everybody is at now,” Santana said.
“You can sit there and talk story for hours about fun times. And it makes you feel happy because everybody has so much going on now with work and their own kids.
“But when you come back to this school, it’s like you’re back in elementary school and you can just enjoy. And that’s what we are hoping for the open house – to just allow people to have that time to enjoy and maybe even reconnect.”
For more information on the time capsule and upcoming events, call 689-1290, email pohakeaschool@gmail.com or visit pohakeaschool.weebly.com.
