From right to left: State Sen. Jake Oliveira, Dawn Starks, State Rep. Brian Ashe, Christine Devlin, State Rep. Angelo Puppolo, Town Council President Ralph Page and Derrick Feuerstein.
Reminder Publishing photo by Peter Tuohy
EAST LONGMEADOW — History repeats itself in East Longmeadow with the burial of the 2026-2076 time capsule, hoisted down and sealed off in the same location as residents did 50 years ago with the 1976-2026 time capsule.
Residents and elected officials gathered at Heritage Park on July 16 to get one final look at the time capsule until it is unearthed in 2076. Contents in the 1976 capsule will be unveiled on Aug. 6, 6 p.m. at the Pleasant View Senior Center.
East Longmeadow Rotary Club member Dawn Starks kicked off the celebration by recognizing her fellow Time Capsule Committee members, who refer to themselves as the “time capsule keepers.”
The “time capsule keepers” include Starks, Historical Commission Chair Christine Devlin, Historical Commission member George Kingston, Historical Commission associate Brian Bracci, Historical Commission contributor Andrea Driscoll, Rotary Club member Dan Burack, former School Committee member Greg Thompson and Town Manager Tom Christensen.
“We’ve had a successful submission from our towns folks, all kinds of really cool stuff that’s wanted,” Starks said. “We’ve had families that have taken a lot of time to put together a lot of things of the times. We have a lot of town artifacts, pictures, magazines, newspapers, menus, letters to those in the future. This capsule goes in today and it comes out in July of 2076, you do the math and figure out how old you’ll be.”
Starks said the time capsule was in memoriam for the “head honcho,” former Historical Commission Chair Tom Behan, who died in January. She said “he had a great vision for this and we tried to stay true to it and honor his memory” before giving the floor to Devlin.
Devlin said Behan proposed burying a new time capsule when she first joined the Historical Commission in 2024.
“Tom said, ‘it will be here before we know it,’ and he was right,” Devlin said. “We very sadly lost Tom in January of this year. Thankfully though, we’ve had a fantastic team that has come together to pick up where Tom left off. It was a true group effort, but without Tom’s excitement and enthusiasm for this project, we would not be here today.”
She said burying this time capsule while unearthing the 1976 one has shown how much things change in 50 years. Items in the 1976 capsule include cassettes tapes, 8mm film, old photographs and letters.
“It’s difficult to even imagine what 2076 may look like,” Devlin said. “We’ve had some fantastic submissions, and we thank all the residents and businesses that have participated, and a special thank you to Go Graphix for their donation of the beautiful wrap for the capsule.”
From left: The time capsule wrap by Go Graphix. One final look inside the time capsule before burial. The time capsule lowers into its new home until 2076.
Reminder Publishing photos by Peter Tuohy
2025-2026 Rotary Club President Derrick Feuerstein said the club’s theme is “united for good,” and that the capsule is a great example of that. He added that he first met Behan in the Fazio’s parking lot, stating that he was “so full of excitement.”
“He was like ‘there’s a time capsule, it needs to be dug up, we need to do something about it, we need to have a party, we need to create a new one, we need to do this and that,’” Feuerstein said. “I’m like ‘okay, come talk to our group.’ The fun thing was, there were people at that meeting who were here when they buried the last one … the rotarians, the East Longmeadow Historical Commission, town officials and others all united and made it happen. Congratulations to everybody who worked on this project.”
Town Council President Ralph Page said it’s amazing to look at the items put into the new capsule and that events like these are a part of the town’s culture and show town pride.
“We love it here,” Page said. “Anyone that moves here is just overtaken by it, and that’s what we have to keep going.”
State Rep. Angelo Puppolo thanked everybody who contributed to the project and that it continues East Longmeadow traditions of “excitement in all of the fun and festivities.”
“That’s what it’s all about,” Puppolo said. “It’s a tradition. It’s everybody coming together in town for a great cause, for a good time. We really have a reflection, not only about what we put years ago in here, but what we’re putting in now and what it signifies and the significance it has to what we have in a daily life right here in East Longmeadow.”
He said the items in the capsule and the dedication it took to make it happen show the small town charm and what makes East Longmeadow special.
State Rep. Brian Ashe said the event is significant in honoring where the town has come in the last 50 years and what it’ll be in another 50 years. He said he will be 113 years old when it’s dug up so “thank god medicine will be fantastic.”
He added that he and Behan were classmates throughout the East Longmeadow schools and bumped into him again a few years ago. He said the event “brings a piece of the past back to us.”
“It really meant a lot to get to know him again, to talk about the old days and just growing up,” Ashe said. “Thank you all for contributing, thank you for keeping this alive. Thank you Tommy up there, I appreciate you, miss you brother.”
State Sen. Jake Oliveira said people like Behan “keep history alive for future generations.”
“I will say about Tom, if you got him on a tangent about a historical marker, you might lose several hours of your time,” Oliveira said. “[The time capsule] really shows the history of East Longmeadow, and when people open this time capsule 50 years from now, I hope they understand that preserving our history for the future is so important.”
Once the speakers concluded, Thompson and his company, Stripes Lawn Service, lowered the lid onto the capsule, lifted it up and lowered it into the large hole. Dirt poured down on top of it and officially sealed the capsule’s new home until 2076.
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