Out of a surfeit of curiosity I went and looked up the entire OED entry on the period use of 'small' as a noun. I hope you find it interesting as I did.
1.a. Persons or animals of small size or stature; little ones, children. (Now only with the.)
c. 1220 Bestiary 505 in O.E. Misc., Ðe smale he wile ðus biswiken, ðe grete mais he nost bigripen. a 1300 E.E. Psalter xvi. 16 Þhar leuings to Þair leuings to Þair smale left Þai.
1388 Wyclif Matt. xviii. 6. Who so sclaundrith oon of these smale, that bileuen in mee... [But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me...]
c.1430 Syr Tryam. 1556 ' A lytulle lower, Syr, 'seyde hee, ' And let us smalle go wyth thee'.
So, it seems that in period 'small' was used as a collective noun for children. It is therefore correct to say 'the small', much as we say 'help the poor' or 'we small', like we say 'we few, we happy few, we band of brothers'. There is no support for using 'small' as a singular noun like 'there goes my small' and no support for using 'smalls' as the putative plural of 'small', as in an event for 'smalls'. However, it is correct to say 'an event for the small', or 'an event for our small', meaning an event for children, kids, kinder, et cetera.
I hope this is interesting!
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