Time Capsule
The following speech was presented and prepared on May 21, 2021 by Michael Mitchell, Curator of Collections.
The BMW CCA Foundation was founded on April 19, 2002. Since then, there have been three legs to our organization. The Library, Archives, and Museum; Preservation; and Street Survival. Our motto is “Saving Lives, Saving History”.
Several months ago, when Jackie Bechek brought up the idea of creating this Memorial Garden, she suggested we bury a time capsule. Of course, I have heard about Museums, schools, and towns burying or digging up a time capsule, but I have never witnessed seeing a time capsule event. It was a bit overwhelming to think about what we should bury from our collection. What do we want the future generations to see? What might best represent our Foundation and what we are doing?
At first, we had this grand idea of what we could bury, but then we quickly realized we would be limited based on the size of the containers. This made the decision even more challenging. In my hand is a smaller version of the time capsules (1) that are in this waterproof white container (1a). There are four tubes with the items we have collected.
Inside this box are the following items to represent our history:
- A letter from the Board of Trustees that will tell the future generation about our history. (2)
- A list of names for the current Board of Trustees, staff and contractors, and some of our volunteers (3)
- Since our Foundation was formed in 2002, we included a 2002 Round taillight pin. (4)
- We found a name badge from a 1995 BMW CCA Oktoberfest with Tamara Hull’s name on it (5). Tammi was one of the founding Board members, along with Leo Newland and John Eveland
- One of my first Foundation name badges, as I was the first employee to be hired by the Foundation is included (6)
- Of course, I cannot forget Street Survival. We have included several items to represent Street Survival
- A TireRack Street Survival tri-fold brochure (7)
- A Parent Companion handbook (8)
- The Golden Rules (given to the students at the schools) (9)
- Finally, a small foam traffic cone that we give out at the schools (10)
- We included several pictures for how our Museum looks today, both outside and inside (11). It will be interesting to see what changes have been made in the next 30 years.
- We included the latest copy of The Foundation Forum, our newsletter (12).
(1) An example of one of the time capsule tubes
(1a) The waterproof box that held the four time capsule tubes before it was buried
(4) Since our Foundation was formed in 2002, we included a 2002 Round taillight pin.
(5) We found a name badge from a 1995 BMW CCA Oktoberfest with Tamara Hull’s name on it. Tammi was one of the founding Board members, along with Leo Newland and John Eveland.
(6) One of Michael’s first Foundation name badges, as he was the first employee to be hired by the Foundation
(7) A TireRack Street Survival tri-fold brochure
(8) A Parent Companion handbook
(9) The Golden Rules (given to the students at the Street Survival schools)
(10) A small traffic cone (given to the students at the Street Survival schools)
(12) Latest issue of the Foundation Forum
Five years ago, we opened our first real Museum exhibit in this building. Heroes of Bavaria: 75 Years of BMW Motorsport. Since then, we have held three other exhibits.
- For the Heroes exhibit, we have included a 1:43 scale model of the BMW V12 LMR that we borrowed from BMW for the exhibit (13, no photo)
- For our second exhibit, ICON: 50 Years of the 2002, we included Rob Siegel’s book Ran When Parked since Rob’s car, Louie was part of our exhibit (14)
- For our third exhibit, PASSION: 50 Years of BMW Cars and Community, we included a Respect Your Elders t-shirt (15). In most states, after 25 years, a car is an antique. Look at this new M4, it will be an antique when we dig up this capsule. Will it be on a t-shirt in the future that says “Respect Your Elders”?
- For our latest exhibit, GENESIS: BMW From the Beginning, we included a challenge coin (16) and a R24 Motorcycle key ring (17).
As we all know, this past year and a half, we have all been dealing with COVID-19. We had created a “Keep Your Distance” t-shirt (18) and a face mask (19). Both are included in the capsule.
(14) Rob Siegel’s book Ran When Parked
(15) Respect Your Elders t-shirt
(16) Challenge Coin
(17) R24 Motorcycle key ring
(18) “Keep Your Distance” t-shirt
(19) Foundation face mask
- Since the beginning, Jackie Jouret has been the author of our exhibit books. Unfortunately, we could not fit our books into the tubes, but we did include a copy of Finding Elvis’s 507 by Jackie Jouret (20)
- Our next exhibit that will open July 5 is BMW Z: Freedom and Fun. We are including a 2011 Zfest Grille Badge (21) to represent this exhibit
- In 2022, our exhibit will celebrate the 50th anniversary of BMW M. For this, we added a Hot Wheels E46 M3 (22)
- Although not an official exhibit, we have several major art pieces done by Romanian artist, Adrian Mitu. Mike Ura, a former Trustee of the Foundation, introduced us to Adrian and has loaned us the art. We have included two images of Adrian’s art to capsule (23).
(20) “Finding Elvis’s 507” by Jackie Jouret
(21) 2011 Zfest Grille Badge to represent BMW Z: Freedom and Fun
(22) Hot Wheels E46 M3 to represent 2022’s 50th Anniversary of BMW M
We also thought we would include some items to represent the BMW CCA
- Inside is the May 2021 issue of Roundel, the club’s magazine (24)
- A BMW CCA Lifetime Member pin (25)
- A Friend of the BMW CCA pin (26)
- And a Friend of the Marque pin (27) – Lance White is the newest member
- Klaus Schnitzer is here today, he is a long-time photographer of the Roundel. We have included one of his slides (28), which happens to have Erik Wensberg sitting on the hood of a PTG E36 M3 race car. Erik has been an Advisor to our Board since 2003
- There are 70 chapters in the club. Our local chapter is the Sandlapper chapter, and we included their decal (29) to represent all the chapters.
- The CCA has many National and regional events. We included a 50th Anniversary Oktoberfest Luggage tag (30). There is only one man that attended all 50 Oktoberfests and that is Michael Izor.
- We also included a Vintage at the Vineyards 2010 decal (31), a local event our Foundation works with every year.
(24) May 2021 issue of Roundel, the club’s magazine
(26), (27), (25): Friend of the BMW CCA pin, Friend of the Marque pin and BMW CCA Lifetime Member pin
(28) Photo slide of Erik Wensberg sitting on the hood of a PTG E36 M3 race car, by photographer Klaus Schnitzer
(29) Local chapter decal to represent all of BMW CCA’s chapters
(30) 50th Anniversary Oktoberfest Luggage tag
(31) Vintage at the Vineyards 2010 decal
Of course, we cannot forget our friends at BMW AG, NA, Manufacturing, and the Performance Center.
- BMW celebrated their 100th anniversary in 2016. We included a ball point pen with the “BMW is 100” logo (32)
- For the BMW Performance Center, we included a small foam traffic cone (33).
- We included a gear shift knob from a BMW (34) and an ignition key (35) from a MINI Cooper. Today, we have key fobs, and most cars are some sort of automatic transmission. Will we still have manual transmissions and keys in the future?
- Finally, we included a BMW Art Car license plate (36). BMW has 19 Art Cars to date in their collection. It will be interesting to see what the future brings.
(32) Ball point pen with the “BMW is 100” logo in celebration of BMW’s 100th anniversary in 2016
(33) Small foam traffic cone for the BMW Performance Center
(34) Gear shift knob from a BMW
(35) An ignition key from a MINI Cooper
(36) BMW Art Car license plate
We are honored to put this capsule together. We hope these items best represent the Foundation, the CCA, and BMW. Today, you get to witness this being buried. This will be unearthed on our 50th anniversary is April 19, 2052.
