Long history of volunteering

Lynn Stokes is Volunteer of the Month. PICTURE / PAUL BROOKS

As Whanganui Volunteer Centre Volunteer of the Month, Lynn Stokes earns a $40 voucher, courtesy of Mud Ducks, and a volunteer pin.
"People just do what people do," she says.
At the moment Lynn is on the steering committee for the amalgamation of the RSA and Cosmopolitan Club.

She comes from a South Island country environment in which her mother milked cows, baked bread and fossicked for food from the beach.
"We had the dubious honour of having the house in New Zealand nearest to Australia. We lived at Cape Foulwind out from Westport."

She met her husband, Arthur, while they were both working with the air force at Wigram.
"When we lived in Christchurch, Arthur became involved in Jaycees, and through Jaycees became involved in Birthright, which was fairly new in those days. I became involved as well and we ended up carrying a 'zone' in Christchurch. I was field officer and went out and interviewed families."
That was Lynn's first experience as a community volunteer, at a time when they were raising a family themselves.
"Through that it was recommended I might like to look at social work."

Lynn signed up for Theory and Practice of Social Work at Canterbury University, a night course over two years.
"I was placed with Catholic Social Services in Christchurch under Father Tom Cahill."
Lynn became employed as a social worker, through which she would gain skills that would stand her in good stead for many years.
"I got on the Social Work Association's committee ... I also got involved in a holiday programme for children from difficult families or solo mothers. I would interview families who wished to take a child. I set up a system where children had their own family to go to, on the basis that these people became more like grandparents or aunts and uncles. So if they never had an opportunity to see what a real family structure and security was, they could look forward to the holidays."

Lynn and Arthur moved to Wanganui in 1978 when Arthur was transferred through the Prison Service to work as a senior prison officer in the new medium security establishment at Kaitoke. Lynn started work in 1980 in Employment at the Department of Labour. She saw it as a time when real unemployment started. Around that time, Lynn became a foundation member of the Wanganui Country Music Club.
"Arthur and I are life members of the local club and the NZ Association."

From their involvement with club administration, she became the woman "who walks around with the constitution in one hand and a policy manual in the other, and I don't apologise for either.
"We both owe a huge debt to the NZ Country Music Association, because Arthur became secretary for eight years and I was NZ field officer, learning about the necessity of structures and procedures ... learned all about incorporated societies, writing constitutions and rules and regulations."
Committee structure involvement equipped Lynn with more skills she would continue to use as a volunteer.

In 1990 she started a 10-year stint as oncology social worker at Wanganui Hospital, specialising in palliative care and grief counselling.
"In holiday time I took on hospice training at Te Omanga Hospice in Lower Hutt. It was something I thought I needed to do."
She was on the Hospice committee in Wanganui before there was a dedicated hospice premises, apart from four dedicated beds in Newcombe Ward at Wanganui Hospital.
In 1999 she was shoulder-tapped for the committee organising the millennium celebrations at Springvale Park.
In 2000 she "retired".

Earlier Lynn had completed some Massey University counselling courses; they came in handy when she became counselling support for Hospice nurses when it was in Wanganui East.
"I did that for a couple of years then, out of the blue, Merle Bradshaw rang me. She was on the committee of Age Concern." They were moving from a committee of staff to one which comprised a lawyer, a social worker ... people with various backgrounds.
"I became vice-president for a year then president for four years."
Lynn organised novelty fundraising nights for Age Concern at the RSA.
Arthur is still involved with Age Concern.

Through long, personal involvement with a family member's misfortune, Lynn joined the committee of the Brain Injury Association.
"It was payback time."
She organised four concerts at the RSA to raise funds for Brain Injury, employing the talents of musician friends Andrew and Kirsten London and Legal Tender (Ian Campbell and Moira Howard).

Lynn and Arthur are looking forward to an October reunion of their air force trade, which almost coincides with their 60th wedding anniversary.