CRESTVIEW — Area Girl Scouts are choosing items for a time capsule that will tell future members their story several years from now.
Their inspiration was a 10-year-old capsule their predecessors contributed letters, photos and other mementoes to. The box had been displayed in a glass box in City Hall's lobby.
"To be opened in the year 2013," read the green engraved brass plate on the capsule's stand.
Girls from Troops 48, 316, 174, 409, 410, 88, 244, 349, 190, 312, 320, 235, 268 and 392 had contributed scouting mementoes from their respective troops. Participating troops packed items — like a T-shirt and drawings — in resealable plastic bags.
"In a lot of their bags they included what we call 'swaps,'" — distinctive, usually handmade, patches that Girl Scouts exchange with girls in other troops, Megan Jackson, of the Girl Scout Council of the Florida Panhandle, said. "Some girls included photos of themselves."
Most troops included a letter for members who would open the capsule. Current troop members during Monday's City Council meeting read some of the letters, which described activities their troops were involved in at the time. Some listed the former members' names.
"We plan on being in the Christmas parade dressed up as angels, but we don't really need to dress up for that," wrote one troop's author, eliciting laughter around the council chamber.
While 10 years ago may not seem far back to adults witnessing the wooden capsule's opening in the City Council Chamber, some of the girls withdrawing the box's contents were infants or unborn at the time, Jackson said.
"Some of the girls who made the capsule (in 2003) our girls know as adults now," she said.
Using materials they found in the box, the girls who opened the time capsule are tracking down their predecessors who packed it, Jackson said.
They're also considering options for the next time capsule.
They may use the same wooden box, "but sometimes girls want to add their own touch because it's their turn now," Jackson said.
Contact News Bulletin Staff Writer Brian Hughes at 850-682-6524 or brianh@crestviewbulletin.com. Follow him on Twitter @cnbBrian.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Time capsule inspires Girl Scouts to make their own (VIDEO)