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Based on fostering community understanding and cohesiveness, the South Nepean Muslim Community (SNMC) is a non-profit organization based in Canada’s capital city. Offering Ottawa residents an opportunity to congregate, educate and enhance their lifestyles, the SNMC offers their services and location to members of any faith, culture or ethnic background.
With services such as marriage and family counselling, prayers, funeral services and even a match-making program, the organization has been a pillar in the community since its inception.
While the early history of the organization included a number of different locations, in 2015, the SNMC settled in to their current home, complete with a mosque, allowing them to continue to strengthen their community.
The 1,500 square- metre facility is home to a three-level prayer room, library, fitness area and funeral facility. In addition, the facility also houses two large halls that are transformed into basketball courts for athletic programming.
It was here where our services were requested to bring the athletic facilities up to par. The community reached out to our team to design, supply and install a pair of ceiling-suspended basketball backstops as well as provide safety padding for the walls in the gymnasium.
The project was extremely custom in nature given the existing overhead structure in the facility. With difficult truss elevations, HVAC systems, lighting, acoustic panels and roof drain pipes in the way, our team had to think outside of the box to complete the basketball installation. In the end, two main court systems were installed with forward-facing bracing operated by electric winches and an easy-to-use key switch operation.
When it came time for the wall padding, our design team was tasked with creating a padding solution for three walls of the gymnasium which was to include custom cut-outs around doors, fire extinguishers and electrical switches and outlets.
Today, this inclusive community has a gymnasium to match its mission statement. With state-of-the-art basketball systems, including glass backboards and the safety padding to match, the athletic facilities are able to support athletic programming for all ages.
