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Introducing the 2002 Making A Difference Awards Winners
by Darlene Nagy, Making A Difference Awards Chairperson, presented at the 2003 MBC Conference in Ottawa, Ontario
Multiple Births Canada is indeed lucky to have within its membership so many dedicated and committed volunteers. It was evident as we watched in awe the amazing individuals from Multiple Birth Families Association of Ottawa put together a terrific Conference.
One of the highlights of the Annual General Meeting and Conference was the Making A Difference Awards ceremony that was held on the Saturday evening. 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. The awards are divided into three categories; local, national, and international. We called upon you, our peers, to nominate people whom you felt deserved this distinction and you delivered. The Making A Difference Award committee consisted of Darlene Nagy, Lori MacEwen, Nancy Young, Lynn Stadler, and Patricia Krasnozon. Thanks so much for all the fantastic nominations; we thoroughly enjoyed reading them. It was great fun… until we had to choose a winner in each category. It was a difficult decision, however, one that had to be done.
We would like to congratulate the following individuals who received the 2002 Making A Difference Award. The awards consisted of a certificate of appreciation and a plaque.
International Category:
We would like to congratulate Dr. Louis Keith on winning in the International Category. Dr. Keith has not only been a long time Multiple Births Canada/POMBA Canada Advisory Board Member, he has been a long time friend. He has dedicated his life to promoting and improving the health and well-being of multiple-birth children and their families around the world. From the late 1980’s to present he has been involved in several projects with MBC. He started out with Multiple Births Canada by working with our founder, Sheryl McInnes in establishing breastfeeding guidelines for multiples. He then continued his work by developing a position paper and presentation for the Royal Commission on New Reproductive Technologies. In 1994, his dedication went beyond Multiple Births Canada and Dr. Keith assisted the COMBO/ISTS executive in developing the Declaration of Rights/Statement of Needs Document. Dr. Keith’s most recent efforts are focusing on participation in several Development workshops highlighting the development of guidelines for the management of multiple-pregnancy, and to establish a multiple-birth research agenda for Canada.
Dr. Keith’s interest in the multiple-birth community perhaps stems from the fact that he himself, is a twin. Louis and his brother Donald, are co-presidents of the International Society of Twin Studies. Multiple Births Canada has truly benefited from such a generous man. Congratulations Louis!
Dr. Keith wrote the most wonderful letter to express his sentiments about receiving the award.
“My letter must begin with, wow, what a surprise! To say the least, I am totally flabbergasted and deeply honored. I was particularly pleased to see that I was in the company of Dr. Jon Barrett, whom I consider one of the outstanding young Canadian investigators in addition to being a personal friend.
I read your comments and am most humbled by them. Whoever nominated me summed it up quite nicely. Donald and I indeed worked hard for many years to bring the world’s attention to the issues related to multiple-pregnancy and multiple-birth. Our interest and desire stem in no small part from the fact that we are “survivors” of an intact pregnancy born essentially in the same time frame as the Dionne quintuplets. The world is very much aware of the inadequacies of the medical care surrounding their birth in rural Canada. In contrast, the world is not so much aware of the fact that in 1935 in Chicago a woman could die from delivering twins as IV fluids were uncommon, oxytocics had not been discovered, and blood transfusions were unheard of. My mother had a postpartum hemorrhage and would have bled to death had not one of her girl friends, who was a doctor, barged into the room, found her lying in a pool of blood and instituted vigorous uterine massage.
Although this story was not recounted to my brother and I by my mother in an attempt to lay on a guilt trip, I certainly could not help remember it when I came to Prentice Hospital 40 years later, and my brother suggested that we ‘do something’ about multiple births. His urgent suggestion led to a lot of work with a remarkable list of accomplishments on the part of the Center for Study of Multiple Birth- five major monographs on the subject, 94 journal articles, 74 abstracts, 213 platform presentations or lectures, and the list goes on and on.
Clearly, it has been fun, and I don’t regret one minute of it. In fact, I’m looking forward to my retirement so that I can get down to serious work on multiples. Recently, I received a Ph.D. (summa cum laude) on the topic of “Triplet pregnancies in women over 40 years of age.” The findings were totally counter-intuitive (older mothers had better outcomes) and have led me to prepare a new lecture on this topic, which I will be delighted to give to Multiple Births Canada at their next meeting if they want to hear it. If that were their pleasure, I would ask that the lecture be in honor of Dr. Jon Barrett.
Thank you again and keep up the good work.”
Louis Keith, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Northwestern University
Feinberg School of Medicine
National Category:
Next, we would like to congratulate Dr. Jon Barrett on winning in the National Category. Dr. Barrett is an outstanding individual who has shown support for multiples and their families in Canada and continues to work and research in an effort to maximize the support that these families receive. He has been an Advisory Board Member for MBC since 1999. He is presently the Medical Director of the Multiple Pregnancy Clinic at Women’s College Hospital in Toronto and an Associate Professor for the University of Toronto. He was the key factor in forming the Multiple Pregnancy Perinatal Network and the co-chair of the Research Workshop on “Setting a Canadian Multiple Birth Research Agenda.” One nominator sums up Dr. Barrett’s achievements and personality:
“Luckily for multiple-birth families everywhere, Dr. Barrett is very committed to educating healthcare professionals all over the globe, in the differences between having twins, triplets or more and having a singleton baby and why professionals need to be aware of these differences. Because of his commitment, enthusiasm, creativity and availability, his expertise and knowledge is available to each and every one of us on an “as-needed” basis. When contacted as a member of MBC’s Advisory Board, you can bet that Dr. Barrett will have answered your questions within a couple of hours each and every time. He is a man of few words, and we are extremely fortunate to have Dr. Barrett in our corner.” Thank you Jon and congratulations!
Here are a few words of thanks from Dr. Barrett. “I was astonished and touched by the Award. Firstly, I did not know that it existed and secondly by the thought that the work I have been doing has made a difference. Sometimes we get so caught up in the ‘Ivory Towers’ we forget why we are doing this work. MBC makes me remember It - for all you families of multiples out there, and those still to come, who have taken on the challenge of supporting each other in the face of enormous challenges.
To all of you keep up the work and thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
Jon Barrett, M.D., Ph.D.
Multiple Pregnancy Clinic,
Women’s College Hospital
Toronto, Canada
Local Category:
In the local category, we would like to congratulate Gail Moore of Temiskaming Multiple Births. Presently, Gail is the President, Newsletter Editor and the driving force behind Temiskaming Multiple Births. She is also the co-chair for the 2004 MBC Annual General Meeting and Conference being held next June in New Liskeard, Ontario. She is active at the national level as Marketing Liaison, and she also ran the Chapter Exchange at this year’s conference. She was also instrumental in getting the “Mapping the Future” project to the North. Gail is an example of what one can do with very few resources in a northern community and many families in northern Ontario have a great respect for her and consider her a role model in their community.
“Gail is a ‘mover’. She is a ‘shaker’. She is not a ‘quitter’ and she is a ‘friend’.” Gail is an active woman who has certainly made a difference to a lot of families in northern Ontario and families throughout Canada. Congratulations, Gail!
It was such a pleasure to have Gail receive the award in person. She was so surprised when she received the award from her fellow Temiskaming Chapter friend, Lori MacEwen. After the conference, her local paper also ran a news story on Gail and her achievements. This shows that she is a positive light not only in the multiple-birth community but in her own community as well.
Gail’s comments follow:
“It’s much easier to reward someone else for their volunteer efforts than to receive that acknowledgement. Like most active members, I give of my time, energy and passion to the multiple-birth community because I believe in our mission statement “to enhance the quality of life for multiples and their families.” I do it because I care and I want to make a difference, which is no different than other Multiple Births Canada volunteers.
I thank my club for nominating me and for supporting our local initiatives. Temiskaming Multiple Births is blessed with some very caring and hard-working individuals!
I thank MBC for their acknowledgement as well. We are fortunate to have such a strong committed group of visionaries leading us towards a positive future!”
Local Category, Runner Up:
Once again this year, the committee felt there was another candidate with exceptional dedication to the multiple-birth community in her local area, so our congratulations goes out to Debbie Ralph of Newmarket POMPBA. Debbie has been an active member for the past six years. Although not on paper, she is still fulfilling the role as President for Newmarket POMBA. In the past she has held many positions within the club (usually at the same time!) and she keeps going strong. In the past two years, she has developed Multiple Joys Playgroup- a playgroup for multiples and encouraged many shy members to come forward into leadership positions. A nominator states: “Debbie is always there to lend a helping hand, whether it be club-related or personal in nature. Her enthusiasm is contagious and her warmth and sincerity to be cherished—an awesome woman that has led Newmarket POMBA to success!” Congratulations Debbie!
Debbie, shown above, was especially proud of this award. She had tears in her eyes (and so did I) when I presented it to her.
Debbie was ecstatic when she said that “it is wonderful to hear such nice things being said about an MBC member, but when you realize that it is you they are speaking about, it is truly overwhelming. I am so grateful that people took the time and effort to submit nominations on my behalf. The amazing things that were said brought tears to my eyes and I feel so privileged to have been a part of this wonderful organization. It feels great knowing that I have made a difference in the multiple-birth community.”
I would also like to congratulate the Honourable Mentions for the Making A Difference Awards. These individuals have shown leadership and dedication within their chapters. Each of these individuals received a certificate of appreciation and a small gift as our thanks for all they do for the multiple-birth community.
- Katherine Romain: Durham Region POMBA
- Dawn Frewin: Lethbridge Twins and Triplets Club
I would like to thank everyone who put forth nominations this year and we look forward to receiving even more next year. Katherine Romain will be the Chairperson for the 2003 Making A Difference Awards. These awards are an excellent way to say “thanks” so we challenge everyone to submit a name next year. Congratulations once again to all the recipients of this year’s Making A Difference Awards! Darlene Nagy resides in Holland Landing and is a member and past president of Newmarket POMBA.
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