Around 2,000 people packed Great Lakes Secondary on Saturday to get one last look at a historic Sarnia high school.
The school's history committee hosted a SCITS memorabilia viewing and time capsule opening that displayed items from 1921, the year the school was built.
The day began like a typical high school pep rally with the school's song and a "Let's Go SCI" chant.
Former teacher Laurie Fillion lead those cheers just like he used to back in his teaching days.
"I started doing it in 1997 to bring the school's song back," say Fillion. "I basically lived at SCITS. I was here in 1974, then from 1982 to 2012 when I retired."
A hush fell over the crowd when items from the box were being unveiled. It included coins, vials of oil, newspapers and a few other documents.
Unfortunately some of the items, like the history of the local Indigenous community, were in rough and unreadable shape.
Teacher and committee co-chair Helen Crick says she had mixed emotions after the box was opened.
"I was really looking forward to looking at a letter in Ojibwe giving a history of the Aamjiwnaang," says Crick. "So there's a tinge of disappointment. But hearing everyone gasp when things were being pulled out, it was incredible."
Most people stayed after the ceremony to view old awards and class pictures, to buy team jerseys and school memorabilia , or to just roam the halls one last time.
The former SCITS high school will close their doors at the end of this school year.
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