Great War Flying Museum gets funding boost from Caledon Council Community Golf Tournament
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A contribution from the Caledon Council Community Golf Tournament will help the Great War Flying Museum complete a major hangar expansion that will attract more visitors, create space to store, display, maintain and rebuild its vintage aircraft, improve safety and accessibility and expand its ability to host events.
The only living history museum in Canada dedicated to honouring and preserving the contribution of World War One veterans, the Great War Flying Museum is the primary recipient of proceeds from the 2019 edition of the Caledon Council Community Golf Tournament. The $77,000 contribution represents over half the estimated cost of the hangar expansion project.
“The Great War Flying Museum is already one of Caledon’s most popular destinations, both for visitors, students and local residents,” said Councillor Nick DeBoer, Chair of the Caledon Council Community Golf Tournament. “The expanded facility will give them the ability to create more programming, host more events, reach more people…and continue to preserve and honour the memory of our veterans.”
The Great War Flying Museum is an all-volunteer organization that has been active at the Brampton-Caledon Airport for almost 50 years. Every year it puts on air displays, hosts school tours and receives over 4,000 visitors. It maintains two buildings on site: a museum that displays artefacts and a hangar in which it builds and maintains a fleet of World War One reproduction aircraft. Its aircraft are also flown in air shows and commemorative ceremonies across North America and are seen by up to 50,000 viewers a year. The hangar has been used for movie and TV productions and its aircraft have appeared in productions as diverse as The Aviator (starring Leonard DiCaprio) and the TV pilot Bishop Girls.
“The expansion will help us expand our capacity and continue our mission to educate and raise awareness of the contribution of veterans,” said Natalie McHaffie, Curator and Vice-President of the Great War Flying Museum. “We will be able to keep all our aircraft on site for public viewing during peak summer months, do maintenance and construction year-round, upgrade public amenities, including an accessible washroom, create dedicated fire exit routes, safely store our archives and materials, host more events and accommodate larger bus-sized tour groups.”
To complement the $77,000 contribution from the CCCGT, the Great War Flying Museum is in the midst of a fundraising campaign with a goal of $140,000. Construction (see attached photos) is already underway at the airport and is set for completion by this summer. A grand opening is tentatively scheduled for Sunday, June 21, 2020. For more information about the Great War Flying Museum, visit greatwarflyingmuseum.org.
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Media Contact:
Strategic Initiatives | Communications
905.584.2272 | communications@caledon.ca
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