Lake of the Springs Preserve
How Friendship
Blooms at Lake of the Springs
By Genia Prewitt

Summer is here and parents are once again talking about going camping. Of course, that means that young teens and their sibling will be off with their parents away from all of their friends. Two friends are amongst those with a slightly different frame of mind. You see this is July 13th 1997, and last year these two girls had started a tradition that would last for years.

Amber Sciligo and Kira Marquis had a mission, to find a time capsule that they had hidden at Lake of the Springs in site G-11. Although there are many activities at LOTS, the main objective is clear, so with any digging materials they could find, they set about digging up their treasure.

Upon finding their package, they proceeded to unwrap it and re-affirmed their commitment to being friends. They once again buried the time capsule for another year. This tradition continued for the next 3 years. Then in the year 2000 they graduated high school. After a final summer at LOTS, they went in different directions to start their college education . . .

The story doesn’t end just yet. It is now Sunday August 19th 2007, I walk out of my 5th wheel in site G-12, and there are several vehicles in site G-11. Yes, you guessed it, there are two girls digging under where a rock had been. Their family members are watching intently and of course I had to ask the obvious question. “What are you doing?”

While the grandmother of Amber tells the story, Amber, now 25, and Kira, now 26, are busy at work with a hammer. They have now graduated from college. This is the first time the two have been together during the summer since they buried their letter in their time capsule back in 2000. The question is . . . will they find it???

Well they have found something, but it sure looks weathered. The challenge now begins to unravel, or should I say unwind . . . and unwind . . . and unwind. WOW! There must have been twenty layers of duct tape, baggies, electrical tape, and even 2 layers of Cheeto’s packages (now we know what they were snacking on at night in their tent).

The last baggy . . . and not much bigger that a folded up piece of paper was . . . ”a folded up piece of paper” that said . . . Well it was their vow of friends forever. It had been signed by them on July 13th 1996, and each year through 2000.

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