Rob Daniel • Iowa City Press-Citizen • May 27, 2009 Third-grader Joseph Hein and several Regina Elementary classmates placed the large crucifix in a
large concrete time capsule Wednesday morning. The time capsule was to be buried later Wednesday afternoon in front of the monument to Regina High founder Father Raymond Pacha, and will be opened again in 2059. It was a fact that impressed on Joseph, 9. “I feel pretty good because 50 years from now, kids that go here will figure out what we did here,” he said. The filling of the time capsule and an all-school rosary Wednesday morning at Regina High School were the culmination of the school’s celebration of the 50th year of its founding in 1958, said April Rouner, executive director of the Catholic Community Foundation and chairperson of the school’s 50th anniversary committee. She said the event, which included the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who were among the first teachers at the school, was a way to mark the end of the anniversary and honor the Virgin Mary, after whom the school is named. “We want this historic year to be remembered 50 years from now,” Rouner said. The Sisters led about 900 students, ranging from kindergarten through junior year of high school, in praying the rosary for alumni, teachers and others who were connected to Regina. It was an event that illustrated the Catholic faith that is at the core of the school, Rouner said.
Afterward, students placed items in the 200-pound time capsule. They included newspapers, yearbooks and school handbooks. They also included 50th anniversary pins and T-shirts and a banner that flew from downtown Iowa City lampposts for two months during the recent school year.