Treasure Trove of Memories
Shepherd Staff Members Prepare Anniversary Time Capsule
It’s not unusual for Shepherd Center staff to look ahead to the future. Therapists are preparing patients for their future return home or return to work. Clinicians are looking ahead to future treatments, and even cures, for the conditions they treat. And two Shepherd staff members, Martina Mays and Kelsey Harris, are also looking ahead, to 2075.
That’s the year Shepherd Center’s 50th anniversary time capsule, scheduled to be buried this August, the month of Shepherd’s founding, will be opened again. And there’s a lot of work going into making sure the time capsule tells the Shepherd story and stands the test of time.
To determine what’s going in the time capsule, Mays and Harris have been digging through Shepherd’s archives, gathering items like old blueprints, Spinal Column magazines, and photographs. They’re also preparing new materials, like quotes from staff and video interviews with hospital co-founders Alana Shepherd and David Apple, M.D.
“[Working on the time capsule] grabbed my attention because I like that kind of thing,” says Mays, the office manager for Shepherd’s marketing team. “I like looking back at older items, and I thought it would be good to try to save some memories or create some memories to play back later.”
In addition to figuring out what to include in the time capsule, Mays and Harris are also making sure items in the capsule are preserved for the next 50 years and accessible to Shepherd’s next generation. “We have these video messages that we could put on a jump drive, but in 50 years, will people still be using the same technology? We’re thinking about how people in the future will use the things we include,” Harris says.
Shepherd Center’s 50th anniversary time capsule will be buried in the Home Depot Courtyard outside the Marcus Center for Advanced Rehabilitation during anniversary week celebrations in August. To stay up to date on all of Shepherd Center’s anniversary celebrations, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/shepherdcenter.
By Erin Kenney
This story first appeared in the special 50th anniversary issue of Spinal Column magazine.
With five decades of experience, Shepherd Center provides world-class clinical care, research, and family support for people experiencing the most complex conditions, including spinal cord and brain injuries, multi-trauma, traumatic amputations, stroke, multiple sclerosis, and pain. An elite center ranked by U.S. News as one of the nation’s top hospitals for rehabilitation, Shepherd Center is also recognized as both Spinal Cord Injury and Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems. Shepherd Center treats thousands of patients annually with unmatched expertise and unwavering compassion to help them begin again.