Demolition crews at the former Barrie YMCA have discovered a piece of history.
Brian Shelley, vice president of philanthropy, brand and community development for the YMCA of Simcoe/Muskoka, says crews from Priestly Demolition located a time capsule behind the 1994 cornerstone of the Grove Street West YMCA.
“When they took the cornerstone out, it was behind it,” he told BarrieToday.
Shelley says he had no idea the time capsule was hidden there.
“We believe the capsule is from 1994 as it was behind the 1994 cornerstone. That’s more than 25 years ago (and) there aren’t many staff with the YMCA as they’ve retired or moved on, so we really don’t know what’s in there, (but) we are excited to find out," he said.
The time capsule is a bit bigger than a shoe box, but Shelley said they have no idea what might be inside.
“It’s pretty light, so I wonder if it is notes from staff or members. … I really have no idea. It’s almost 30 years … it’s not 100 years, but a lot has definitely changed in the last 30 years,” he said. “We are definitely interested to find out.”
YMCA staff are still trying to decide when, where and how to open the time capsule.
“We are trying to determine a way that we can engage as many stakeholders from our YMCA community as possible in the opening of the time capsule, and obviously doing that during a time of COVID means probably doing it virtually," he said.
Shelley says he's thrilled the company not only located and passed along the time capsule, but was also able to preserve both the 1964 and 1994 cornerstones from the old building, which will be included in the new YMCA facility when it’s built.
“We really want to extend a thanks to Priestly Demolition for saving not just the time capsule, but also the two cornerstones. It’s pretty amazing to have a demolition firm that would go above and beyond and would actually reach out to us to get it in our hands,” he said. “It’s pretty amazing they saved it. They could have just tossed it and no one would have known.”
