During the start up years, Temiskaming Multiple Births was involved in a few awareness initiatives including family BBQs, a Fall Fair parade float, selling chocolates, Euchre parties, flower bulb and bake sales.

With the proceeds we were able to add additional resources to our library and make a difference in our community by donating a CD Player with lullaby CDs and a twins breast-feeding pillow to the Temiskaming Hospital nursery. We also hosted the Baby Contest at the New Liskeard Fall Fair for a few years.

We produced a chapter newsletter, but most of our resource material pertaining to multiples came from our national organization. Fact sheets, parenting kits, organizational structure were some of the resources we used on a regular basis. Gradually, we became more attentive to the activities of MBC. Understanding that we had an additional role to play within Canada’s multiple-birth community we became more involved at the national level.

Some of our early members encouraged the new parents to consider attending a national conference. The early members had attended the annual events when they were held in Ontario and identified this yearly gathering of multiple-birth families as a true learning opportunity.

In 2000, we sent delegates to the Niagara Falls National Conference and Annual General Meeting. We personally recognized the need to make attendance essential to the growth of our chapter. They were educational on a personal level, but most importantly they offered chapters opportunities to share initiatives and experiences, allowing us to expand our support.

In 2001, MBC asked TMB to voice the interests and concerns of multiple-birth families in the north by hosting one of four Mapping the Future (MTF) focus sessions being held throughout Ontario that year. MTF, financed by the Ontario Trillium Foundation, moderated by the Canadian Institute of Child Health was a foundation-building exercise for the reorganized MBC.

In 2002, TMB submitted a bid in to host a national conference. We were accepted! So began two intense years of organizational work on the first national conference ever hosted by a chapter in a small community. A quick recap of the 2004 MBC National Conference follows.

In 2005, TMB made an appearance at the 10th Annual Twins Festival in Montreal, Quebec. Eight families, half our membership, climbed aboard a charter bus for the event. The highlight of the Twins Festival was the parade through downtown Montreal where our multiples, wearing their TMB t-shirts, marched with over one thousand sets of multiples. Our chapter carried the National Multiple Births Awareness Day banner in the parade. A set of twins from our chapter also made it to finals of the most-look alike contest.