The MADA CHAPTER award is presented to a chapter that has displayed outstanding dedication or has been responsible for outstanding accomplishments of significance to their local multiple births community.

The 2018 Making a Difference Chapter Award winner is the Durham Parents of Multiples.

In 2017, the executive was faced with a 90% succession rate as most of the old executive had moved on after the 2016 conference held in Ajax.

Only three of the executive members were carrying on to the new executive.

Seeing this as a challenge, the new committee vowed to make 2018 an amazing year with many new changes.

Over the course of the year, the new committee was successful and hit almost all of their goals and even managed to introduce new programs for the members.

As a club they procured tables at local events to promote our organization and raise awareness about multiple births not only in the Durham region but in Canada. They met new potential members and informed the public on some of the joys of raising multiples. They also informed the public about some of the challenges that families of multiple births face. Additionally, they volunteered to assist with MBC's ultrasound project to the best of their abilities sending out 350 packages, adding more addresses to the database as they come across them.

They felt that the club needed some new events for the upcoming year, as we were losing members with older school aged multiples and attendance was starting to dwindle at our regular events. To solve this problem, they implemented the following programs: The club started to offer youth nights like bowling, fire station tours, trampoline park night and other great ideas to flourish. They also offered plenty of opportunities for youth to get their student volunteer hours. They completed a club wide survey to find out what was working and what was not working within their club and took suggestions on changes. New programming for adults included a paint night, a comedy night out and we plan on hosting a pub night. They also decided to change the format of the "Ladies Night Out" to "Parents of Multiples (POM) Nights". They wanted to make a friendly atmosphere for dads and by changing this up the club has become more inclusive. The response was amazing. There are always a few dads out at all these events.

​Community Outreach is very important to DPOM these initiatives include the NICU stocking Program, sponsoring a multiple family at Christmas through the Children's Aid Society, Christmas photos for our members with all the proceeds went to Grandview Children's Centre (a local organization offering serviced to families with children with special needs). They have also launched the "Period Project" within the organization. The project collects feminine hygiene products for homeless woman or women in shelters who have had to leave their homes with nothing.

One of the most successful fundraisers that they started this year was T-shirt sales. They found a local t-shirt vendor willing to create awesome "twin related" t-shirts for the whole family. They went like hot cakes, and we are already working on offering these sales again.