This February, a new Chair, Nick Walker; Vice Chair, Dr. Mhairi McKenna, and Treasurer, Dr. Sheila Hainey were appointed at the Company’s third AGM.
Nick Walker is an NHS doctor working in mental health in Wigtownshire and has lived in Wigtown for over ten years. As well as clinical work as a psychiatrist, he has had management and educational roles. In Wigtownshire and elsewhere, he has been involved actively in the community and in the charitable sector. He has volunteered for the Wigtown Book Festival and is on its Board of Trustees. He has a long history of Community Council work, currently overseeing planning consultation responses in his community council and previously as Community Council convenor. He has been involved in various community groups, successfully raising funds for projects to benefit communities from community gardens in Renfrewshire to the community purchase of the former Bank of Scotland building in Wigtown which is not being converted into affordable tenancies and a small bunkhouse style budget hotel. Nick has been a KCBC Director, from the wider area of benefit since 2018, and was elected to chair the Board after the AGM in February 2021.
Dr. Mhairi McKenna comes from South Ayrshire and the Scottish/English borders, with the family farm near the many wind turbines by Barrhill. Family holidays were spent in the area getting to know it well and enjoying time with family. When Mhairi retired from general medical practice, she moved back to Ballantrae in 2008 and became interested in getting involved in her local community. She is involved a number of local community voluntary organisations and through this she became aware of funding which could be applied for from the Community Benefits payments from the windfarms. When the opportunity to become a ‘wider area’ director on KCBC arose, Mhairi thought that with skills and experience to offer, and that it would be good to offer a perspective informed by living in a small community on the edge of the area of benefit. Mhairi says “I am fascinated by the variety of organisations applying for funding, and it has been a great experience being on the board of directors. I trust that KCBC will leave the area as a better, more prosperous place for future people.”
Dr Sheila Hainey was born and raised in Ayrshire, and first got to know Stranraer and the Rhins while on visits to relatives as a child and on family walks in the Galloway hills. After time spent at Edinburgh University and a varied caeer which included genetics research and fund management, Sheila and her husband moved to the Rhins in 2016. Sheila notes that when she first heard about KCBC she really like the list of fund priorities and felt she had some skills she that could contribute to the board. Sheila says “I was astonished at the diversity of projects and events in the small rural communities of the KCBC area of benefit. The energy and enthusiasm, to say nothing of the skills and commitment, which people bring to activities which contribute to the wellbeing of young and old are truly inspiring. It is humbling to see how people can make real changes for the better, often with the most basic of resources.” Sheila hopes the Fund will leave a legacy of an area where more people can work and raise their families in thriving, vibrant local communities.