Scott Dammeier’s courageous battle with cancer ends

The community rallied around the local business owner earlier this year as news broke that he was battling terminal cancer.

Scott passed away June 29 after a tenacious fight

Scott Dammeier, owner of Scott’s Family Restaurant in Paris, has passed away after a courageous battle with cancer on June 29th at Juravinski Cancer Centre in his 51st year

Earlier this year, the community rallied around Scott and Kim, to support the duo who’ve built their business here over the last 20 years, serving locals undoubtedly the best eggs benny breakfast around while supporting youth sports clubs and organizations and community events. The Paris Firefighters Club hosted a successful Touch a Truck event raising over $10,000 to help the couple as they tried to keep the restaurant open while navigating a multitude of doctors’ appointments and treatments. Longtime friend and Scott’s Family Restaurant employee Tina Graziano created a Go Fund Me campaign titled Friends of Scott’s Family Restaurant. Money raised helped the pair with day-to-day operational expenses, financial recovery from the Covid pandemic, medical expenses and allowed them to spend precious time with one another, and with Scott’s children Griffin and Devlin. After the page was launched Scott and Kim shared a special message with the community: “We are so grateful for all the support from family, friends, customers and the community, and as we start this journey, we will fight no matter what Thank-you for your continued thoughts and support.”

Throughout his battle, Scott never lost sight of recovery His focus remained on battling cancer and taking each obstacle as they came, doing what he could to squeeze out extra time with his family, friends and children. It was always his goal to get back in the kitchen of the restaurant he loved Scott was beyond touched to know so many people were thinking of him and wishing him strength and peace. At one point, just before the fundraiser hosted by the firefighter’s club, he said he felt like a local celebrity At the end of it all, he was happy that his dream to start a family restaurant touched so many families over the years.

Scott’s Go Fund Me Page is still active, and donations to the SPCA or Juravinski Hospital in his memory would be greatly appreciated by the family.

Summer Writer’s Fest provides smorgasbord of storytelling

Arts & Entertainment

Reading can be the perfect past time because it works all year round, in all seasons, in all weather, and I’m happy to report that the same goes for the Riverside Reading Series’ Summer Writers Fest! It was a wet and wild weekend but literary lovers braved the precarious precipitation and were rewarded with a smorgasbord of storytelling, an audience of ardent author honourers and a really bright beginning for this fantastic festival.

Popping up in Lion’s Park on June 24th, the Riverside Reading Series was a multifacetted day centred around literature and leisure A range of radiant reader/authors performed from the Walter Williams Amphitheatre to a seated audience, and a sprinkling of tents surrounded the stage, connecting us to caffeine, yoga and various community groups and companies that support reading (Brant County Public Library,

Book*hug Press, Invisible Publishing, to name but a few).

It was a wonderfully varied event with programming for kids, families and adults. There was energetic book reading in the grass, on blankets, with actions and excitement for the younger book lovers led by - the coolest people in the world - library people! Live from the amphitheatre stage were performances from authors sharing poetry, storytelling and songs and tales for all ages.

When you needed a break there was an opportunity to bend and stretch with Up Yoga + Wellness, which rounded out that real mind, body balance and the refreshments from

Altitude Coffee Roasters certainly perked things up.

The Riverside Reading Series’ Summer Writers Fest was made possible with fantastic funding from Canada Council for the Arts through the Writer’s Union of Canada and through the hard work of the Riverside Reading board of directors comprised of Emma Johnston, James Cairns, Layne Becker-Grime and Alison Fishburn.

There are and were, no doubt, countless people involved in this festival that deserve thanks, so a big fat “Thank You!” to them!

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I want to take a moment to give kudos to all the wonderful writer/readers - Farzana Doctor, Bruce Simpson, Tanis MacDonald, Dwayne Morgan, Nic Brewer, Erica London, Jaclyn Desforges, Anthony North, Kim Fahner, Ekiuwa Aire, Robert Priest, Suzanne Craig-Whytock and Fareh Malik; writing is such a dip and dive into your soul and then adding the layer of public performance to that is all the more impressive!

It was a really strong and sweet event and one of the final moments of the day truly encapsulates the energy of the whole shebang As the afternoon was in its homestretch, the sky did what it was threatening to do all day, and opened wide with a deluge of rain, sending book worms into a whirl But, as it was a group of thinkers and creators, a solution took no time at all, and soon the remaining audience had gathered in the shelter of the amphitheatre, bright orange chairs surrounding our readers and finishing off the programme with a more intimate and cozy setting. It was actually the perfect way to end this whimsical day!

Bravo to all involved, and stayyy tuned for 2024

Summer Writers’Fest details; find Riverside Reading Series news on their website www.riversideseries.com or follow on Instagram for more events and opportunities @RiversideSeries

Brant County OPP hand out positivity tickets!

A group of Paris youngsters were ticketed on Thursday….for being awesome and safe at the same time! Brant OPP Officer J. Buckert stopped a ground of kids and handed out positivity tickets to reinforce the message that helmets save lives! The youngsters were more than happy to receive their tickets and took a moment to pose with the officer for a candid photo.