The Barrie Mosque held its annual barbecue on Saturday and welcomed anyone from the community to join in the festivities.
On offer was a free lunch, vendors selling their traditional wares along with a bouncy castle for the kids.
There was also a local firetruck on hand and firefighters to show the children around the equipment; they also handed out gifts to the kids.
Turnout was high despite the heat.
Yusuf Haroon, president of the mosque that caters to nearly 500 local families, said the event is vital, allowing people in the community to get to know one another and encourage interfaith dialogue.
“We are open to anybody. We have just finished construction in the mosque where we will have a large information centre where anyone can walk in if they have questions about us," said Haroon.
“We invited Barrie’s fire department, the police, and the mayor, who will be coming down here to visit. The fire department and the police have been a very supportive team for us all these years,” added Haroon.
A nice surprise for the event organizers was that Dominos Pizza provided pizza at no cost.
“They won’t take a single penny and said they would supply as much as we wanted,” said Haroon. “That means a lot to us.”
The mosque has been located on Ferris Lane since 2004 after moving from their original location on Little Lake Drive, where they began in 1977.
That old location had become inadequate due to the community’s growth, Haroon explained. It was a long-held dream of the worshippers to have a much larger space that could service the needs of the community.
A larger expansion of the facility has since been added and most of the construction is now complete.