DeKALB | Despite the cooler weather at DeKalb’s Sesquicentennial Time Capsule Dedication, spectators were met with a warm reception at the 2:30 p.m. ceremony Sunday.

“We are making history today,” said Kathy Siebrasse, publicity chair of the Sesquicentennial Committee. “Something like that can’t be rehearsed. It comes from the heart.”

With plans to be opened as part of the city’s bicentennial in 2056, the 2006 capsule was sealed and dedicated in commemoration of DeKalb’s 150th anniversary. Commenced by the opening of the 1956 copper time capsule in April of this year, the dedication of the 2006 capsule officially concluded the city’s six-month celebration of the sesquicentennial.

Siebrasse said intentions for the capsule are to have it loaned to various public places throughout the DeKalb area over the next 50 years. Possible locations include the library, city hall, NIU and many other locations. The capsule’s safeguarding will be in the hands of the city, which has assumed responsibility for it. The first location for the 2006 capsule will be the DeKalb Chamber of Commerce lobby in the Nehring Center, 164 E. Lincoln Highway, where it will be on display with the 1956 capsule.

In addition to the 25 children selected by the core committee, five essay contest-winning students from DeKalb schools and St. Mary’s School in DeKalb were chosen to serve as the ceremony’s “Time Capsule Kids.” The essay contest asked students to give their opinion of “What life will be like in 2056.”

“In my essay, I said that DeKalb would be much more developed in the year 2056,” said Ryann Schopfer, a 3rd grader at Jefferson School in DeKalb. “I also think that there will be many more people from foreign countries living here.”

The concept of the “Time Capsule Kids” originated in 1956 when Centennial Committee members designated 14 children to aid in the placement of items into that year’s capsule. One of the original “kids” from 1956, Robert Krupp, now serves as the Time Capsule Committee Chairman.

In the reading of the proclamation addressed to the citizens of DeKalb in 2056, Krupp said, “We ask that you take a moment from your festivities to remember that the city you see before you was forged from the prairie by pioneers who long ago left their material possessions behind, but brought forward for your benefit the blessings of liberty, family, and entrepreneurialism that have fueled DeKalb’s growth from a prairie village to a city of over 40,000 inhabitants.”

Over 125 items were placed into the capsule, selected by the city’s Time Capsule Committee, who took into account suggestions from the surrounding community on what the capsule should contain.

“I think the biggest challenge was deciding what to put in the capsule,” Siebrasse said. “We wanted today to have meaning, not only for us, but for the people who will follow us, too.”

Jessica Fink is a City Reporter for the Northern Star.