Discovery Developmental Center commemorated the center’s 21st anniversary Tuesday by creating a time capsule that won’t be opened for another 20 years.

Director Collette Box led the ceremony, dropping the cylindrical capsule into a 3-foot hole dug into the ground beside the center’s building on Glenwood Drive.

“Here we go,” she said.

About nine children scooped cupfuls of dirt from a nearby bucket and crowded around the small hole. They took turns dropping dirt over the metal capsule that will preserve artifacts from families and children in the Flathead Valley.

Inside the capsule were watercolors painted by students and messages written by parents and staff containing the hopes, dreams and visions of what the next 20 years will bring.

The capsule will be unearthed Oct. 15, 2033.

Box said they were going to celebrate the center’s 20th anniversary, but the school year proved too busy.

The first students to attend the center in 1992 are now in their 20s.

“We actually have one alumni who has a child currently attending,” Box said. “We’re seeing kids graduate from college.”

Ursula Wilde of Kalispell, now a parent, was in third grade when the center opened. She attended afterschool and summer programs held there. Wilde’s mother was the center preschool teacher for her son Rylin, 8.

Wilde attended the anniversary celebration with Rylin and her other child Jasper, 4, who currently attends the center.

“Even if I didn’t know all the staff personally, this is an accredited school and that gives me peace of mind,” Wilde said. “It feels like family.”

Becky Madison teaches 4- and 5-year-olds and has taught at the center since it opened. The buildings may change and the children grow up, but one thing remains the same for Madison.

“I love working with kids and seeing them make their discoveries. It has been a privilege to know I’m making a difference in their lives,” Madison said.

Mary Anne Gill, a physical therapist who serves on the center’s board, and Katherine Heider, a speech-language pathologist, founded the nonprofit center as a place where children with special needs or developmental delays could receive therapy services in addition to pre-school programming. This combination of services for preschool children was absent from the Flathead Valley, Gill said.

“We opened our doors with 12 children,” Gill recalled.

Eventually, Gill said she and Heider had children of their own and decided to integrate children of all abilities, whether they had special needs or not.

“They learn and play together,” Gill said. “They learn to celebrate differences.”

Now the center serves about 42 children ages 2 to 6, and is licensed for 45.

In 20 years, Box and Gill hope that play will remain an integral and important part of child development and preschool programs in an age when technology cuts into physical play.

“I hope they don’t take play away from children. I hope they make sure there’s plenty of time to do this,” Box said, pointing at children chasing each other and climbing on playground equipment. “Play is children’s work.”

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or by email at hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.