Paris Port Dover Pipe Band received a $158,600 provincial grant on Saturday, October 3, 2026.
Awarded in March of 2025, the three-year Grow Grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation will be used for funding teaching programs, workshops, and technology for the band.
“Without this funding, we would not be able to afford to have weekly instructors,” said Karen Stewart, director of the band.
Stewart further explained that the band has players who can teach the basics and beginners, but they need outside expertise as players advance.
A large part of the money paid for Fall Fusion, a one-day piping and drumming workshop held on Saturday. Stewart said it drew participants from across southwestern Ontario and brought in instructors from across Canada and the United Kingdom who compete at the highest professional levels.
Stewart said Fall Fusion is costly to run and would not have launched without guaranteed funding to offset the risk. The goal is for the event to sustain itself once the three-year grant ends.
Stewart went on to explain that the band has about 50 members but it lost many members who did not return after COVID-19, and restarted by teaching a new group from the beginning, and developing those members into full pipers and drummers.
Stewart said the band met some of the instructors at events during its international travels and invited them to teach. Among those at the workshop was Jack Lee of British Columbia, whom she said had been the pipe sergeant of the Simon Fraser University Pipe Band for about 25 years. She said the university’s band won the Grade 1 world championship this year, the top level in pipe band competition.
The band provides lessons, uniforms and drums at no cost, Stewart said. Members buy their own bagpipes, but the band helps those facing financial barriers get a set. It teaches pipes and bass, snare and tenor drums, and practises in St. George.
Stewart said youth members also earn volunteer hours by performing at Legion and memorial events.
“It’s about discipline, it’s about working as a team, it’s about learning how to represent yourself in public,” said Stewart.
