In 1981, a time capsule was buried by Girl Scout Brownie Troop 1356 at Garden City Village Hall. It was supposed to be dug up five years later but no one ever did it! Twenty-eight years into the future … the time capsule has been found!
Workers found it during a construction project going on at Garden City Village Hall. My grandmother, Helen Barletta, who was the troop leader in 1981, started it all. Her troop put mailboxes all over town to inspire anyone who wanted to participate in the project. Tons of letters were written by the Brownies in the troop and by people all over town. The Brownie troop then collected the letters and buried them in a time capsule at Village Hall.
The object of these letters was to write to themselves to compare 1981 to the present year. Postage was to be added by the Girl Scouts of Nassau County and the letters were to be sent out five years later. Instead, they were just found this year! My grandmother and I got to open the time capsule with other Girl Scout leaders. Then at the first annual Garden City Girl Scouts award ceremony, I got to read two of the letters to the audience. One was my Aunt Alice’s letter. She was a Brownie in that troop and was only 9 years old at the time. The other letter was my grandmother’s. My grandmother’s letter had some historical facts in it such as the fact that Pope John Paul II had just been shot and so had President Reagan a few weeks before that. She was concerned about our country and she hoped that President Reagan would help and that things would be much better in five years! Everyone thought that was very interesting. After all these years, the Girl Scout Council is going to keep the promise of adding postage and sending the letters out. So, look out Garden City residents! There may be a letter that you wrote to yourself coming your way very soon! If you think you may have written a letter in this project, you can contact Kerry Couture, chair of Association Volunteers for the Garden City Association of Girl Scouts at 238-7377.
