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Announcing the 2006/2007 Making A Difference Award Winners
By Lynn Stadler and Gail Moore
Multiple Births Canada is indeed lucky to have within its membership so many dedicated and committed volunteers. One of the highlights of the Annual General Meeting and Conference every year is the Volunteer Recognition, Making A Difference Awards ceremony.
The Making A Difference Awards initiative was created in 1999 in memory of our founder, Sheryl McInnes. The awards were established to acknowledge outstanding contributions and achievements within the multiple birth community. These awards are to celebrate those people who have demonstrated excellence, courage and exceptional dedication.
We would like to congratulate the following individuals who received the 2006-2007 Making A Difference Award.
Local Award: This winner is Janice Crawford of Barrie Parents of Twins and More. Janice joined the Barrie club while expecting her twins in  2000, and has been an active fundraiser and caring member. Her first executive as treasurer in 2003 expanded to include sale co-ordinating, fundraising, and then membership co-ordinator in 2004. She revamped and computerized the club’s records and systems. Janice has been involved with starting up the clubs’ prenatal information sessions and is always “pushing” for better ways to support our new parents. Janice’s fundraising efforts were instrumental in helping the club make a substantial donation to the community Hospital in the form of an infant digital scale. She is currently working on a new fundraiser by initiating a “preemie bank” to collect donations to buy Preemie sleepers for the hospital. She continues to be an active member of the executive and volunteers wherever she may be needed.
Honorable mention also goes to Rose Danyliuk, who has been active in the Edmonton club for 25 years. She’s been their president and treasurer and stays involved by offering her catering skills to the annual Christmas lunch for 350 people. Rose has been a driving force behind the Edmonton club and is an excellent example of a dedicated volunteer. Rose has passed this trait on to her twin daughters who now help her organize and deliver Christmas hampers to less fortunate families in the local community on behalf of the club.
And from the Prince George Parents of Twins and Triplets club in BC, Stacy Wittmeier has been making a difference in their club. She’s a mother to four children aged from 7 years to 25 and a grandmother to one! In the five years that Stacy has been with the club she has held 8 positions on the board, many of them simultaneously, while also working full-time outside of the home. She’s an active fundraiser and social co-ordinator and has been a driving force behind her club.
National Award: The winner is Gail Moore, Vice Chair and Director of Communications MBC. Within MBC, Gail initiated the Monthly Activity  Reports which have effectively created awareness of the activities of the Board of Directors throughout the organization. Gail is responsible for the creation and organization of activities of the National Multiple Births Awareness Day. She worked tirelessly to create a national PR/media event that promoted MBC throughout Canada and encouraged local Chapters to hold their own events. To help them, she prepared a media planning kit with everything needed to successfully promote our key messages. Gail’s attention to detail, her great organizational skills and her strong determination were instrumental in the success of that very special day and the annual events which have followed.
A few words from Gail:
I would like to express my gratitude for being nominated for and receiving this year’s national MADA award. Making a difference is something I take seriously; personally believing that it is important to be productive and make contributions that can improve the quality of lives for others. As much as I enjoyed and will continue to enjoy being involved with my local MBC Chapter for the past 14 years, I knew that I needed new challenges after our Chapter hosted the 2004 MBC National Conference in Temiskaming. I satisfied that need by joining the national Board.
I took a lead role in creating and producing the Board Activity Reports and in organizing National Multiple Births Awareness Day (NMBAD). It is my goal that these initiatives will help MBC members to better understand the work that we do at the national level, which is different and as important as what we do at the Chapter level. Further, I am encouraged by the unity it creates within Canada’s multiple-birth community. The more united our voices become, the better the results will be when we speak out for improved services and considerations for all of us, now and in the future. Again, I thank you for this award, and for helping to communicate our needs by delivering NMBAD in your communities.
Gail Moore
International Award: The winner is David Hay, Professor and psychologist specializing in multiples in school, Curtin University, Australia. Professor Hay began a systematic study of the needs of multiples in school in the mid -1980’s. His National survey of twins in primary school, involving over 800 parents and 1200 teachers, provided a comprehensive picture of twins in Australian schools. The resulting booklet “Twins in School” is widely used in Australia, the UK and other countries. To this day, his work has been a mainstay for families of multiples trying to decide what is best for each child in the classroom. His website, (www.twinsandmultiples.org) makes this important resource available worldwide. MBC Directors Gail Moore and Kim Weatherall had the privilege of presenting Professor Hay with the MADA award while attending the International Congress on Twin Studies in Ghent, Belgium.
Dionne [Adult Multiple(s)] Award: The winner is MBC  Advisory Board member Dr. Audrey Huberman. Dr. Huberman is a monozygotic twin who has lived, written, and presented seminars and workshops about the multiple-birth experience. She received her Ph. D. of Education as a result of her research with multiple-birth children with a thesis entitled: Growing up in Tandem with Another. Dr. Huberman was a workshop leader at the 2006 MBC National Conference and the keynote address at the 2007 MBC National Conference. For a synopsis of her presentation, please see above.
Media Award: The winner is Wendy Sandwith and City TV (Edmonton’s Breakfast Television Program). It is not often that a broadcast media outlet can offer in-depth interviews, and seldomly can they give multiple repeats of that interview. In this case, not only did City TV offer that time to Edmonton Twins & Triplets Club (almost 15 minutes) to deliver their message, they repeated it many times over the days and weeks that followed.
The 1st Runner Up is journalist Alexis Roohani. Alexis is a Vancouver-based freelance writer who successfully pitched a multiple-births story to WestCoast magazine, a parenting magazine serving many multiple-birth families in western Canada. They printed the story entitled: A Multitude of Kin: Twins, Triplets and More in May 2006.
The 2nd Runner Up is journalist Camille Bains. Camille, who works for Canadian Press in Vancouver, contacted MBC after the birth of the Vancouver sextuplets. Wanting to respect the family’s request for privacy, while balancing the public’s interest in the story, Camille was able to write and distribute stories that benefited Canada’s multiple-birth community. She reopened the call to dialogue regarding the Federal government’s current provisions for maternity, parental and compassionate care benefits for multiple-birth families by producing a story that was published by hundreds of news outlets across Canada.
Please take a moment next year to nominate someone. We all have strengths and together we all make a difference. Once again, thank you to everyone from the nominators to the nominees and all those who make a difference.
A special thank you to the Making A Diference Chairperson, Lynn Stadler and the Making A Difference Committee, Darlene Nagy, Nancy Young, Alison Cheron, Katherine Romain and Lori MacEwen - THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU DO!!
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Volunteer Opportunities
