New West residents will get another chance to check out the contents of a time capsule.
About 400 people attended the tin soldier time capsule opening event at Westminster Quay last Friday. The size of the crowd made it challenging for some attendees to see the contents as they were removed from the large metal time capsule, and some did not have a chance to check them out when they were displayed inside Fraser River Discovery Centre.
Numerous New West residents have posted comments on local social media pages inquiring where they can view the mementos contained in the World's Largest Tin’s Soldier’s time capsule.
The City of New Westminster has announced it is giving community members another chance to see some of the items this weekend.
Rob McCullough, the city’s manager of museums and heritage services, said all the items that are not specifically addressed to individuals are being brought into the museum and archives collections. (Among the items contained in the time capsule were letters from parents to their children.)
“This coming weekend we will be providing a viewing of everything at Anvil Centre,” he said. “They will be displayed on Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.”
Items will be on display in Anvil Centre’s Level 1 foyer and in the New Westminster Museum on Level 3. Anvil Centre is located at 777 Columbia St.
Several hundred people attended the Tin Soldier Time Capsule Opening event on New Westminster’s waterfront on Feb. 14, where the contents of a 24-year-old time capsule were revealed. The contents included a poem by then-poet laureate Don Benson, several books, a cassette tape, Valentines, mementos from various civic groups, and a Feb. 14, 2001 copy of the Record newspaper.
The World’s Largest Tin Soldier — as recorded by the Guinness Book of World Records — was unveiled on Nov. 29, 2000 at the Royal Westminster Regiment Armoury, part of the first annual Festival of Trees. In February 2001, it was relocated to its current location at Westminster Quay, at which time a time capsule was placed inside and set to be open on Feb. 14, 2025.
