The Police Appreciation Dinner and Awards Night (PADAN) was established in 2002 and the first dinner was held in 2003 by Blair McArthur and Moe Pringle.
PADAN is hosted by community and business leaders. The purpose of the dinner is to celebrate and recognize the contribution that men and women of DRPS, both sworn officers and civilians make to the quality of life, as well as the safety and security in Durham. PADAN recognizes outstanding frontline and investigative policing with Excellence in Policing Awards.
Since 2002 more than 65 individual and team awards have been presented.
The proceeds of the dinner are invested back into the community in many different programs to help at-risk youth, seniors, educational programmes as well as many other community-building programmes. In the past sixteen years, PADAN has raised in excess of $1.5 million through the generosity of those who attend the dinner.
