Eleanor C. Emlen School, originally known as the Eleanor C. Emlen School of Practice when it was established in 1926, has been serving Mt. Airy students for the past 100 years. Now it’s hosting a series of events, including a retiree and alumni luncheon, and a culminating “BBQ Bash” to honor its centennial.

This week’s celebration serves as a reminder of Emlen’s legacy as a source of pride and consistency in the community, with more than 300 kindergarten through fifth grade students today undergoing the first chapter of their educational journey. For one Emlen educator, Kristin Tenney, the school’s purpose isn’t just to help the students hit learning benchmarks. The staff, she says, also wants school to feel like a “home away from home.”

Meredith Seltzer, a school counselor who’s been working at Emlen for 13 years, is responsible for gathering vendors and local businesses to participate in the “BBQ Bash” on Friday.

“We’re having local community members who are going to set up tables, whether to advertise their businesses or have some giveaways. And then we also have some food trucks coming,” she said. “We have them from various areas, but we were trying to target local Mt. Airy businesses to come.”

“We have relationships with a lot of the nearby businesses, as well as a very strong relationship with the Rotary Club in this area,” Seltzer added. “They provide us with a lot of resources, funds for different things, they sponsor different things.”

Seltzer credits local businesses and organizations like those participating in the celebration as “always asking how they can contribute and help,” which allows the school to organize and host events that both engage the community and inspire the student body.

The festivities started on Monday with a pep rally and march around the school. On Tuesday, school officials plan to host a retiree and alumni luncheon.

“We’ve had over 90 alumni sign up,” added Megan McHugh, Emlen’s literacy based teacher leader, who is also a part of the team organizing the celebration.

While one of the event’s primary focuses is community and alumni engagement, it also will include a number of entertaining events to create a memorable experience for current students. Tenney is responsible for planning the in-school student day scheduled for Wednesday.

“We are doing a birthday party in the gym,” she said. “We will have music, games, a coloring station, tic-tac-toe, Jenga and Sorry. They are going to have a make-your-own ice cream sundae bar in the schoolyard. We have costumes to dress up as, like the ‘nifty fifties,’ all the good stuff. And then they each have a party favor, which will be sunglasses.”

While many of the events celebrate the school’s history, others are designed for students to look forward. Students will be creating two separate time capsules, with different purposes and intentions, to be buried on Thursday.

“One, we’re burying outside and forgetting about,” McHugh said. “That one is like, whenever the time comes that the school is demolished or something is dug up, they’ll find it.”

The second capsule’s future will be tied to the students who create it.

“We got an Igloo cooler, and we’re gonna hide that one in the school, and we’re just going to leave a note for the passing principals, like, this is where it is. Don’t talk about it,” McHugh said.

After the current Emlen kindergarten students graduate from high school, this second time capsule will be opened. Then, McHugh says, the next generation of kindergarteners will “refill it for the next.”