CHICAGO — The Chicago Children’s Theatre in the West Loop welcomed families to a free celebration Saturday.

“People are ready to get children out of the house and children are ready to be with other kids and to create and just rejoin the world,” Jacqueline Russell, co-founder of the Chicago Children’s Theatre, said.

Chicago students return to the classroom next week. With the celebration, theatre organizers also want to make sure there’s documentation what children have been through the last year and half.

The organizers are helping the kids mark their memories with a time capsule.

“…Writing about the things they want to keep from this time like family dinners and new pets and writing about the things they want to leave behind like not getting to see their friends and not getting to go to school,” Russell said.

The plan is to seal these time capsules in the fall.

Sarah Kinn, an apprentice at the Chicago Children’s Theatre said kids are the future and it’s important to learn and understand what the pandemic has been like for them.

The capsules will be opened in 2026.