In June, the Small Arms Society partnered with Waterlution at the Mississauga Waterfront Festival to celebrate "Greatness - the Great Lakes Project" through the 'Great Arts for Great Lakes' public art initiative, featuring local artist Vanessa Logan. Vanessa created a beautiful, interactive piece, engaging the community in creating water-themed images for transference on reclaimed glass. The SAS will be announcing an unveiling event for the final sculptural creation, to be held on October 1st. Keep an eye out for invites, to be sent out in the following weeks.

Check out our main blog post on the original event  here.

In the Spring of 2017, the city began planning for the remediation of the Small Arms Inspection Building. Phase One focuses on upgrades to the south end of the building, replacing windows, skylights and mechanical systems, adding new washrooms and the creation of a servery area. 

On June 18th the official ground-breaking ceremony was held on the grounds of the building, officiated by Mayor Bonnie Crombie, Ward I Councillor Jim Tovey, MP Sven Spengemann and MPP Minister of Finance Charles Sousa. The ceremony included the planting of three oak trees - each grown from acorns collected at Vimy Ridge. They represent a poignant connection to the people who worked at the Small Arms Building and their contribution to the war effort.  A huge thank you for the support of the City of Mississauga and our volunteers for all their help in hosting a fantastic event.

We'd like to extend a huge thanks to the Army and Navy Airforce Veteran's Club executives and Manager LuAnne Bandita for allowing us to use the second floor of their building at 765 Third Street for our work. The new office space will assist the organization in being our base of operations over the next year, providing space for the planning of programs, events, and services for the building's opening in 2018.

The SAS was once again successful in it's request for support from the Federal Canada Summer Works and Ontario Summer Experience programs for providing the funding to hire 4 students over the summer, who's work will support the organization in the upcoming months. Our summer staff are working on volunteer development, web and social media, programming and special projects, expanding both the organization's capacity and outreach. We hope to share their progress with you next season in our Fall newsletter.