Samantha Rayburn-Trubyk

Samantha Rayburn-Trubyk is the president of the Little People of Manitoba, and thanks to her tireless advocacy, Manitoba became the first province in the country to recognize Dwarfism Awareness Day. This is far from all Rayburn-Trubyk is however. She’s one of the most giving and caring people. Thanks to her efforts, amateur sports — including hockey — are phasing out the term “midget” to define age groups.

As president of the advocacy group Little People of Manitoba, Rayburn-Trubyk is fighting to make our society kinder, gentler and more accepting of people living with dwarfism, including her and her 15-year-old son Yale.

Rayburn-Trubyk is a human rights advisor and accessibility manager whose style isn’t to bash people over the head for being intolerant, but to educate them about the issues.

Rayburn-Trubyk’s parents and sibling are all average height, as is her husband. She and her son both were born with the most common form of dwarfism, achondroplasia, a bone-growth condition that affects growth plates. Ultimately, people born with achondroplasia have an average-sized torso but shorter limbs.

In addition to her advocacy in Manitoba, Rayburn-Trubyk serves as a committee member on Little People of America’s advocacy committee. In December 2019 she, along with representatives from Little People of America, traveled to Dickenson, North Dakota to meet with the local School Board and community to attempt to change their local high school mascot, called “The Midgets”.

Most recently, Rayburn-Trubyk co-created an online group to assist parents in both the U.S. and Canada with raising children born with dwarfism. The intention of this group is to share experiences, advice and to provide parents with an outlet to ask questions and receive non-judgmental feedback. The goal of this group is to raise confident, well-adjusted kids who not only love themselves unconditionally but to also understand that they do not need to be “fixed.” With over 450 members, they meet weekly via Zoom.

Samantha became president of Little People of Manitoba, the 38-year-old advocacy organization in 2015, and has quickly amassed an impressive string of achievements.