Cohen Salo is only 11, but a fascination with military items and family stories of service has led him to create a museum in his basement.
His father Jason, a Canadian Forces veteran, is also a collector and gave his son a few items to get him started.
Cohen, 11, is particularly interested in his family’s history with the military and began seeking out their stories and artifacts.
“I found out there were a lot more family members in the military than I thought, and I wanted to find out where they had served and when,” Cohen Salo says.
His museum contains photographs, uniforms and other items, most with a family history. He has a pair of miniature Dutch clogs engraved with the words, “Thank you for the Liberation.” These came from Cohen’s great uncle. Often, much family military history is incomplete, but Cohen and his father are always searching for material to fill in the gaps.
“The family response has been amazing. My grandfather will often call him up with a piece of history he remembered, or a book that he found, that has something in it about his uncles or his brothers,” Jason Salo says.
Cohen regularly gives school presentations based on his collection, and Jason Salo says the two are planning a tour of European Canadian battlefields.
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