Winners Of Millfield Time Capsule Competition Announced

St. Molaga’s National School and Loreto Convent have been announced as winners of the Millfield Time Capsule Competition.  Both schools today received a very welcome €4,000 bursary for school equipment, and their winning Time Capsules were buried at Millfield Shopping Centre.  Runners up were St. George’s National School which received a prize of €2,000.

To mark the launch of the new Millfield Centre which will open on 11th April, the owners asked local schools to provide a piece of Balbriggan history in the form of a Time Capsule.  The competition required that the Time Capsules include items that reflect the changing face of Balbriggan today and the winning entries will be buried in the centre until 2031.

St. Molaga’s gave an insight into the styles and opinions of today with a ‘Passion for Fashion’ booklet of photos of the children in their favourite styles, vox pop interviews with the school children about life now and what it will be like in 2031, a collection of stories from 4th class students on what they are doing now and what they think they will be doing in 2031 and posters of current music and film stars. Their Time Capsule also included a photo collage of the children and teachers from the school, pictures and descriptions of each area of the school as it is now and a vox pop video on the classroom of the future.

Loreto College included examples of some of their favourite items in 2011 – a hair straightener, two different mobile phones, a CD of current pop stars, a booklet on popular shoe styles and a booklet on favourite chocolate bars! They also included vox pop interviews with people in Balbriggan on what they thought of their home town and diary entries on the daily life of students living in Balbriggan.  Current euro coins were also included along with a poster on popular cars and their prices, a lightbulb and a booklet on lighting in 2011 and a poster on the latest technology.

Judges for the competition were Mayor of Balbriggan Frank Snowe, local historian Jim Walsh and Kevin McCormack of Parkway Properties, developers of Millfield Centre.

“We were really impressed with the hard work that all of the schools put into the Time Capsules.  The winning ones were the best examples of Balbriggan today through the eyes of school children. It was great to get physical examples of their favourite items and also that they included opinions from the wider community of Balbriggan.  Those who open the Time Capsules in 2031 will get a great insight into Balbriggan in 2011.  It was a fun and informative competiton and we are delighted to be able to present these prizes to the schools today, they thoroughly deserve them ” said competition judge Kevin McCormack of Parkway Properties.

Runners up St. George’s included a booklet with examples of their favourite toys  along with a pot of play dough and a bag of lego.  A booklet of gadgets used in 2011 was also included as well as a DVD tour of the school and various drawings and photos.

All Time Capsules entered in the competition are being donated to the archives of The Balbriggan Historical Society.