Good Sorts - Lyn Stringer

For Mayoress Lyn Stringer, attending the Waimate Civic Awards can be quite emotional. Volunteers don’t expect to be acknowledged with an award, she says, and it is only when you hear their stories that you can appreciate what they have done.

Lyn believes it was her dad’s example that helped to shape her volunteering spirit.

“He would organise picnics, housie nights, all these different things, off of his own back,” Lyn recounts of the activities her dad would arrange for his workplace, adding that he also volunteered teaching the drums to school students.

“I would see Dad doing that all of the time and I suppose that’s probably what’s made me in my nature to head this way.”

Lyn’s own desire to make a difference manifested itself in high school, when she and a group of other students would take children with disabilities for outings in the park.

Being a volunteer simply requires action, Lyn maintains. “You don’t have to think ‘Oh now, can I do this?’ Just go ahead and do it.”

In their former days as motorcyclists, Lyn and her partner, Mayor Craig Rowley, enjoyed combining their passion for biking with charitable causes.

The couple had a lot of fun going on road trips to raise awareness and donations for charity. “I ended up getting a Can-Am Spyder,” remembers Lyn. “We’d go for rides, and we’d collect things for the Salvation Army, or its toy run or things like that.”

Speaking of her and Craig’s business, Loot Jewellers, Lyn says it has provided her with opportunities to spread a little kindness. “I get the elderly come in and they might just want the pin in their watch strap put back in again, you know, so I do it for nothing.”

A seamstress with her own line of “Stringbean” children’s clothing, Lyn has put her skills to good use in the community, making items as she becomes aware of the need. “You help where you can,” she says simply, of the times when she has gifted clothing to families experiencing misfortune.

Lyn has also given her creativity to making costumes for the nativity scene at St Augustine’s Church, which were then used for Christmas in the Square, and in helping to deck out Rotary’s float in last year’s Christmas parade.

Seeing Rotary invest its efforts into local initiatives is what drew Lyn to become a member three years ago. “Rotaries are ones that like to help a lot, not just overseas but also in the community, the district, and I thought that was what I would enjoy doing - giving help to where we can.”

Lyn was approached in her capacity as Mayoress to become involved with the launch of Waimate’s Operation Christmas Child in 2016.

Each year the organisation takes referrals from a wide range of social services and the community generously donates new Christmas presents, which are then wrapped by Lyn and other volunteers before Community Link facilitates their distribution to families within the Waimate District.

Lyn says approximately ninety-five children received a gift from the organisation last year and seeing the positive impact it has on the affected families is very rewarding.

“Just the feeling you get inside, to know that you have done good somewhere. Not to be recognised, but to know in your heart that you’ve done that yourself.”

Lyn is constantly impressed by the generosity of the Waimate community, especially those who have little to spare, and she observes it regularly when selling raffle tickets for various community groups or volunteering at the annual Toot for Tucker collection kiosk outside New World.

Seeing the joy that her volunteering efforts bring to other people has been a humbling experience for Lyn. Age doesn’t matter, she states, as everyone can do something whether they are young or old. 

“Everyone’s so busy nowadays that we’re losing a lot of volunteers but 10 minutes, 20 minutes, out of your time isn’t much if you do work full time. It’s still a little bit.”

Despite health issues restricting her volunteering ability more than she would like these days, such as requiring her to cease delivering Meals on Wheels, Lyn is still determined to keep doing as much as she can, wherever she can.

“A little thing matters like a big thing – probably matters more – and that’s what keeps me going.”

By Olivia Ball.