Six decades of service and still giving
Victory Hall stalwart Margaret MacColl has notched up 60 years on its management committee.
The granny of 12, who still lives on the Tralee croft where she was raised, was co-opted on to the hall's committee aged just 15 – because she played badminton there.
Now in her mid 70s, Mrs MacColl, whose son is champion piper Angus MacColl, is the hall’s treasurer, a post she has held since 1984 and has no intention of giving up – just yet. The committee meets about four times a year and its big event on the calendar is its Christmas Fair.
Important papers are kept safe in a battered brown case she inherited for the job which is also standing the test of time.
Mrs MacColl has seen many changes over the six decades and was heavily involved in a massive fundraising campaign in the 1990s to extend the hall which originally built after the First World War.
‘The old hall was no good for badminton. We kept hitting the beams,’ said Mrs MacColl who still co-runs the popular club with her friend Maimie Cattanach. In 2016, the pair won an Argyll and Bute Sports Award for their services to sport.
Today the bigger hall and its reading room, home to the village’s Bookends Festival in September, is the hub of the expanding community from gigs to produce shows, social celebrations, clubs and meetings.
‘We had a frantic time when we were fundraising. It was hard work for all of us and we got there in the end.
‘People have come and gone but there’s a few of us who have been on the committee for years. There was Elsie Robb who was president. She died a few years ago but she kept going in her 80s. Then there’s Gordon Cruickshank who is the vice president and has been looking after the hall’s bar for decades.
‘I’ve never really thought about the 60 years, it’s just been a fact of life. I’ve certainly no plans to retire from it just yet!’ said Mrs MacColl.
And she added: ‘They threw a surprise party for me when I got to 50 years on the committee. People had been plotting and scheming, and I had no idea.’