By Gabriella Payne
Giving back to the Pakenham community is what Lynette Stephenson knows best and her stellar efforts have now been recognised with one of the country’s highest honours – the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM).
Named as one of the Queen’s Birthday Honours recipients on Monday 14 June for her services to the community of Pakenham, Ms Stephenson, a dedicated volunteer and longtime scout, said she was honoured and humbled by the award – and a little shocked to say the least.
“I got a huge surprise, I just couldn’t believe it,” Ms Stephenson said, adding that it was “a big honour” to be recognised in this way.
“I just love being involved with the community, I always have been and I think I always will be.”
Growing up in Pakenham, Ms Stephenson always had some great footsteps to follow, as her mother paved the way and was a huge inspiration for her and her sisters getting involved with volunteer community work.
“My mother was very community minded and was involved in a heck of a lot of things; she was the president of the Main Street kindergarten when it started, the Red Cross, the church… so she was very involved,” she said.
“We just grew up with it and I’ve just continued on.”
Ms Stephenson certainly took a leaf out of her mother’s book and over the years has lent a helping hand to many local charities and organisations – but perhaps none more so than her beloved scouts.
Having joined up with Scouts Victoria in 1968, Ms Stephenson has now poured her heart and soul into scouting for the last 53 years, helping many children grow into confident, well-rounded adults along the way.
From a young age, Ms Stephenson said she had wanted to become a scout or girl guide herself, but there were no groups in the area that she “could fit in at that stage”, and it wasn’t until she was a young adult and working as a nurse that she was introduced to scouting once again.
“My sister and her future husband were the cub leaders at Pakenham [at the time] and I decided to go along and become a leader for a while, and just happened to continue on,” Ms Stephenson explained.
“And now, I’ve been through nearly every position you can be in the district.”
Having risen through the ranks, Ms Stephenson is currently the district leader of development for the Cardinia District and has been since 2016, as well as being the leader in charge of the Australian scout fellowship of Cardinia since 2008.
To put the cherry on the cake of her scouting career, in 2015, Ms Stephenson was awarded one of the highest scouting honours possible when she received the National President’s Award for her years of hard work, passion and service – but her community involvement doesn’t stop there!
Like mother like daughter, Ms Stephenson has been involved with the Pakenham Red Cross – the organisation she grew up watching her mother give so generously to – for over 40 years now and has been the chairman there since 2007.
On top of that, Ms Stephenson has been heavily involved with the Pakenham Probus Club, stepping into the president’s role there several times and has been a loyal parishioner and choir member of the Pakenham Uniting Church for about 60 years now.
“I enjoy Probus, the outings we have and the friendships you make,” Ms Stephenson said.
“And as for church, well I’ve lived in Pakenham all my life and that church has been my church the whole time.”
Ms Stephenson explained that over the years, she had taken on many roles with the church as well, whether it be on the catering committee, within the choir or the council.
“I seem to put my hand up for all sorts of things – but if I didn’t enjoy it, I wouldn’t do it!” she said.
Another great passion of Ms Stephenson’s is music, and for about 60 years now she has played and performed a range of instruments with the Cardinia Civic Concert Band and is a lifetime member there.
“It used to be the Pakenham Brass Band when I started as an eight year old,” she remembered.
“The person who was living next to me in Main Street had a bugle, and the band master heard me mucking around on the bugle one day and said ‘get her a cornet’, so that’s how I started and I’ve been a band member ever since.”
Now playing the euphonium, Ms Stephenson said she just “loves” the band and the way music relaxes her after a long day.
Having lost her husband 13 years ago and her mother not long after, Ms Stephenson said that while she was incredibly honoured and humbled to have read the news of her OAM, it was a bittersweet moment as she would have loved to share it with them.
“I broke into tears, but they were tears of joy,” Ms Stephenson said, “I would have loved to tell Mum.”
With all her hard work and commitment to helping the community over the years, Ms Stephenson has surely done her mother proud and created an incredible legacy for the Stephenson family – and helped inspire others along the way too.
