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And the 07/08 Award goes to...

By Lynn Stadler-Hawkins

The Making a Difference Awards were presented during the banquet on Saturday October 18th, 2008 at the annual MBC Conference and AGM in Markham, Ontario.

These awards are given to honour and acknowledge some of our many volunteers at the international, national and local levels within the MBC network. We also acknowledge the contributions of the media and adult multiples that have made an impact on our community.  This year awards were presented in the Media, National and Local categories only.

Please visit the MBC website for a complete list of past and current honourees of the Making a Difference Awards.

Before continuing with the awards announcements I’d like to thank the MADA Committee: Nancy Young, Lori Oldfield, Katherine Romain, Pat Harber and Alison Cheron for their assistance with this event, every bit helps! 

Media Award

The Media award is for exemplary coverage of multiple birth issues. Gail Moore, our Vice-Chair and Director of Communications, presented this award on the Friday morning to the Global News Network. Our Keynote speaker and Global News Co-Anchor, Anne-Marie Mediwake accepted on their behalf.

Following are Gail’s words for the presentation...

“If Multiple Births Canada (MBC) pinpointed an exact time when this television outlet really began “making a difference” we would say... March Break 2006.

Global News contacted MBC with a request to assist them in finding families for a week-long series of feature stories they wanted to produce to air during the March Break.  They generated a 3 minute “kicker” at the end of each newscast every day that week with a different theme - twins, triplets, multiple multiples, etc. 

MBC provided Global News with contacts and helped to set up interviews so that Global could do the stories they wanted.  But, that’s not all that happened!  MBC asked Global News to promote the MBC website at the end of each feature... and they did!  Global News interviewed a variety of families, including Diane Myers, and they ended each feature with a mention of MBC, and superimposing the MBC website address on the screen. 

The editorial value of these news features was in the 10's of thousands of dollars!  

Since that time, Global has showcased other topics related to the multiple-birth community, most recently, in May 2008, they produced a National Multiple Births Awareness Day story focusing on the high risks of a multiple pregnancy. 

In addition, this year, Global and Anne-Marie Mediwake (mother of triplets and Global employee) have worked with MBC to create additional awareness of MBC and the unique issues facing families of multiples through their in-kind donation of publicity leading up to the opening of the 30th Anniversary MBC National Conference Friday morning! 

MBC also recognizes the contribution of Global employee and father of triplets, Darryl Konynenbelt, for his willingness to share their multiple-birth experience with Canadians as well.  Fathers of twins, triplets and more learn quickly that their involvement in the parenting process is needed, appreciated, and makes a difference.  We need them to be engaged fathers, 24/7!

Global News has been “making a difference” since the March Break of 2006, which is why we proudly present them with the 2007-2008 MEDIA Making a Difference Award… thank you Global and thank you Anne-Marie and Darryl for understanding the need to share our multiple-birth stories publicly.  It is through sharing our personal journeys that we become a catalyst for change which positively leads to improving the quality of life for multiple-birth individuals and their families in Canada!”

Honourable Mention... Media Award

Also in the Media category honourable mention was given to Lara Hindle and Bill Cooney of CBC Radio for their efforts to bring multiple-birth issues to the forefront.

Lara’s work on EI Maternity and Parental Benefits for Multiple-birth parents included interviews with MBC board members.  The story was presented nationally, from Cape Breton to Vancouver and can be accessed at http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/story/2008/03/11/multiples-benefits.html

On Father's Day 2008, Bill Cooney contacted MBC with a special request; as a Father's Day spotlight Bill wanted to interview two multiple-birth Dads for a half hour.  Being a father of twins Bill understood the important role of multiple-birth fathers;  his interview focused on the challenges and and the joys of their new roles.  It was both interesting and informative.  As a follow-up Bill posted MBC's website address on his information page encouraging his listeners/readers to get informed. http://www.cbc.ca/freshair/2008/06/fathers_day_show.html .

On behalf of MBC and the MADA committee, I would like to extend our thanks to Lara Hindle and Bill Cooney of CBC Radio, for taking on multiple birth issues and bringing awareness to our country.

National Award

The award in the National category was presented to John Withnall of Webcanvas.ca.  Many of you won’t recognize the name but most of you have seen his work.  In 2004, MBC was able to launch a new website that was designed and built by John.  Since then, the website receives 400,000 hits annually and provides 24 hour educational service to the Canadian and “global” multiple-birth communities.  Also, since the launch, John has been “called upon” to work on the many technical issues involved with running and maintaining a functioning website of this magnitude. Each time he has refused to accept payment for all his diligent work.  This year, he was once again approached to help develop an on-line conference registration tool.  He was excited to help again and presented us with the invaluable tool that many of us just had the pleasure of using to register for the conference!  John’s generosity has been boundless and has made a difference to the multiple-births community of Canada.  If you know an organization looking for an on-line conference registration tool – please send them John’s way.

Congratulations, and THANK YOU, John Withnall!

Local Award

This year’s recipient of the 2008 Local Making A Difference Award was...Candi Cuppage of Barrie Parents of Twins and More.

Candi joined the Barrie chapter over 13 years ago when her triplets were born.  Since then she has been a driving force behind the club.  She has served on the executive in a variety of positions and has been on almost every type of committee from fundraising to social planning.  In 1999, Candi and her husband Paul organized a Christmas float for the Barrie club which went on to win first prize in the non-profit category. 

Candi saw a need for support in her area of Midland, ON and started a monthly drop-in support group for the people who couldn’t make it to the regular Barrie meetings. 

Candi does her part in recycling as well! She makes “Kool-Aid” bags which she sells and has been able to donate over $1000 to MBC through that and other fundraising ideas. 

For the last 10 years, Candi has been the organizer of the Mom’s Camping Get-away Weekend and the Family Camping Week for the Barrie Chapter.  In the last two years she has taken on the task of running a new event for the camping kids which she calls the Amazing Multiples Adventure; inspired by the Amazing Race, Survivor and Fear Factor shows!!  She plans adventures for the 30-40 kids there which takes about two days to complete.  She designs and prepares for activities that teach the kids to work together through sometimes physical and sometimes “mental” tasks and to persevere!! 

At this year’s presentation, MADA Committee member Lori Oldfield was asked to use her skills and put together a DVD of the Amazing Multiples Adventure and this was shown during the presentation.  Thank you Lori for helping to make this presentation a special event!

 
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 - THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU DO!!