{"id":36066,"date":"2025-04-03T11:22:18","date_gmt":"2025-04-03T15:22:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=36066"},"modified":"2025-04-10T19:14:17","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T23:14:17","slug":"new-mosaic-will-highlight-community-unity-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/new-mosaic-will-highlight-community-unity-story\/","title":{"rendered":"New mosaic will highlight community unity, story"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Inclusion, empowerment and belonging in sport will be the focus of a new community mosaic set to take shape at the Stronach Aurora Recreation Complex this Saturday, but these themes go far beyond the rink, pool or baseball diamond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Residents will have the chance to leave their mark on the mosaic by painting its first tiles at the grand opening of the new SARC gymnasium, set for Saturday, April 5, beginning at 10 a.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mosaic is an element of the Town of Aurora\u2019s Sport Plan and will be unveiled in its entirety at the Aurora Family Leisure Complex this fall as part of Culture Days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Organizers are mum on the final image the mosaic will form, but urge creativity to abound at this weekend\u2019s painting opportunity, and at several other chances planned between now and the end of summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the first activations in alignment with the Sport Plan is this mosaic mural activation called \u2018Unity on Canvas: Painting Our Community Story,\u2019\u201d says Hailey Jones of the Town of Aurora. \u201cThe mural is really a symbol of Aurora \u2013 our commitment to inclusion, belonging and empowerment in sport. The bigger picture is really being able to bring all members of our community, regardless of creed, background, immigration status, and all of those things, to be able to bring everybody together to collaborate between not only the Town, but local sport organizations, and community partners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is really an opportunity to bring sport, recreation, arts and culture all together, especially on the heels of Aurora Town Square opening. The grand opening of the Desjardins Gymnasium will be the very first activation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the mosaic comes out of the Sport Plan, Jones stresses that what you paint doesn\u2019t have to be sports-related. It can be \u201canything that speaks to their identity, their journey \u2013 it\u2019s completely up to them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why we\u2019re calling it \u2018Unity on Canvas: Our Community\u2019s Story\u2019 [because] as individuals we are strong, but as a community we are even stronger. It\u2019s about bringing all of those pieces together and the recognition that we all have our own story, but together we make our community what it is,\u201d says Jones before elaborating on the unifying factor of sport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, sport is about more than competition. Sport builds community, it fosters leadership, it strengthens connections \u2013 this idea of bringing everybody together regardless of your age, regardless of who you are and all these other pieces, we can come together and create a sport culture in the community where everybody belongs. Culture, sport, art, recreation \u2013 all of these pieces are often seen in siloes and this is a very intentional approach to bring all of it together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be among the first to leave your mark on the mosaic, head over to this Saturday\u2019s SARC Gym grand-opening ceremony. Painting will take place throughout the day, but there are many different activities on tap from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more, visit aurora.ca\/sarcgym.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additional painting opportunities will take place at a recreation job fair set for the SARC on May 7, a June 22 R.I.S.E. (Recreation Inclusion Supports and Engagement) meeting on June 22 at the Aurora Family Leisure Complex, Pride events in June and on select Saturday Aurora Farmers\u2019 Market days throughout the summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe goal is to engage with over 300 residents to build this mural,\u201d says Jones. \u201cIt really speaks to the work we\u2019re doing in the Sport Plan and in the Sport Plan \u2013 it\u2019s not just the Town\u2019s, it\u2019s not just the local sporting organizations, but it is for everybody. It\u2019s really keeping that front and centre to say that we are united as we move forward and this is an opportunity for people who maybe don\u2019t identify with a sport, or maybe don\u2019t identify as an athlete or coach, to be a part of this positive movement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Inclusion, empowerment and belonging in sport will be the focus of a new community mosaic set to take shape at the Stronach Aurora Recreation Complex this Saturday, but these themes go far beyond the rink, pool or baseball diamond. Residents will have the chance to leave their mark on the mosaic by painting its first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":36067,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/2025-04-03-01.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-9nI","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-15 14:34:03","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36066"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36068,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36066\/revisions\/36068"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}