The Sir John Reid Community Service Award honours the contribution to the Club of Sir John Reid, a Past President, Paul Harris Fellow, recipient of the Vocational Service Award and member of the Club from 1936 to 1984, and recognises a person in the Victorian community whose voluntary service is judged to be worthy of special notice.

The 2011 Sir John Reid Community Service Award was presented to Mrs. Lynne Dunoon at the luncheon meeting on Wednesday 3rd November for her work as a volunteer in the multiple birth volunteer support program, which operates under the auspices of the Australian Multiple Birth Association.

Lynne created the program in 1997 after organizing assistance for a family who had quadruplets in the Swan Hill region.  Lynne took on the task of setting up a network of support services involving over 100 volunteers for the family over a 12 month period to complement limited government and community support.  The award was presented to Lynne by members of Sir John’s family.

Lynne went on to formalize and network the program for families with triplets or quadruplets around the east coast of Australia, providing assistance to communities in Queensland, New South Wales, the ACT, as well as Victoria.  As part of this activity she has produced a guidebook and personally assisted in the recruitment, training and rostering of networks of supporters, typically 35-50 per family, for over 80 triplet and quad births.  The program has gradually built up over the years and typically supports at least a dozen families a year.  It has received widespread community and health service support. Lynne has now created and coached a group of six consultants to propagate the program throughout Australia so that it is not dependent on her alone, and thus ensures its sustainability in the long term.  This is still a focus of her continuing involvement.

Lynne has also been involved in a wide range of community services over many years, initially in the Swan Hill area.  She was a lifeline counsellor and became a parole and probation officer in the region. She set up a branch of court network in Swan Hill as a consequence.  She also was responsible for refurbishing the local National theatre and Scout Hall meeting rooms, has cared for disadvantaged children, been president of Jaycee-ettes, pre-school and state school parents clubs, formed an oral history of over 150 Mallee pioneer stories, and introduced a Soiree group for isolated women in Swan Hill. Lynne is the wife of Rotarian David Dunoon.

She was supported on the day by David and members of her family.