Soldiers and Sailors to Hold 2010 Celebration

Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall and Museum is putting plans in motion for its year-long centennial celebration which begins October next year. A planning committee chaired by Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato will hold its first meeting next month to discuss possible events.

Executive Vice President John McCabe says the museum will use a local reenactment group’s artillery piece to hold a Cannon Blast Celebration on the anniversary proper, October 10, 2010. McCabe says from there, anything is possible, including a parade and a photo shoot. He says the museum may also celebrate its roots with some retro activities. “We are actually looking at several of the activities they did in 1910, and maybe in one way or another trying to replicate those if possible,” says McCabe.

McCabe says the mission of the next 100 years will be about expanding awareness to people who haven’t visited the Hall yet. “Yeah they’ve driven by it and they know there’s a grand building sitting here, but they don’t really know what’s inside, what’s outside, what’s going on here. So we want to reach out to that portion of the public that really doesn’t know about us.”