Now in their seventh season, the kitchen volunteers Val, Margaret, Dot and Arthur make sure that players have plenty of healthy meals to eat during their strenuous training sessions.
For Val, she cannot imagine life without Hawthorn.
Her family has always followed the Hawks and she fondly recalls her father Sid taking her to Glenferrie to watch the Mayblooms as the Club was called then.
The stars were the likes of rover Alec Albiston, the dynamic centreman Jimmy Bohan and the handsome Wally Culpitt, one of the longest kicks in the VFL.
The family connection with Hawthorn was to grow stronger.
Her brother Bobby Milgate played 10 games with the seniors in 1948. Val vividly recalled his first game, a hard-hitting encounter against Richmond when he was flatten by Ken Sier behind the play. She thought the entire family was about to jump the fence to remonstrate with Sier. Bobby in later years was an active member of the Past Players assisting with the building of their new rooms under the Dr Ferguson Stand at Glenferrie with his good mates Ken Hopper and Vic McKinnon.
Val left school at the age of 14 and started working at Morrison’s Pharmacy in Glenferrie Road.
This suited her fine, as she was able to attend training on a Thursday night after work, a ritual that she thoroughly enjoyed. Another fond memory was the popular dances held in the players’ gym (in the Red Brick Stand, later called the Tuck Stand) on a Saturday night after the game. Everybody loved to dance with Roy Simmonds and John Peck.
When the Club moved its home games to Princes Park in 1973, Val joined the Social Club. This was great time to follow the Hawks with Captain Don Scott, Leigh Matthews and Peter Knights the stars with the team playing finals nearly every year.
In Val’s words, “we all would return to the Social Club most Saturday nights to either celebrate or commiserate.” Val is one of a privileged small band of supporters who has seen Hawthorn’s 10 premierships with the 2008 being extra special - in her valued role in helping in the kitchen, she was privileged to join in the celebrations with the victorious 2008 side.
Some of her favourite players through the years have been John Peck, Leigh Matthews, Dermott Brereton, Shane Crawford and Lance Franklin.
In 1998, Bill Stavretis who lead the Volunteer Group sought assistance for a proposed sausage sizzle for supporters to help raise funds for the Club. Val’s love for the Hawks saw her offer her assistance. It was during these happy Thursday nights that she got to meet Dot and Arthur Chisholm, Margret Ely and Carol Hunt.
When the Club made the decision to move to Waverley in 2005, Bill Stavretis’ wife, Faye who oversaw the preparation of the player’s meals decided to stand down from her role. Following this move, the Club approached Val, Margret, Carol, Dot and Arthur would they like to take the task of preparing lunches for the players during the season.
The Kitchen volunteers have since become a very valuable part of the Club with their ongoing hard work. Val is the quiet member of this team and one ponders if the players know how long she has supported the Hawks, the number of players that she has known personally and in particular that her brother also played and wore number 19.
Val also has a very special room at home devoted to her Hawks and spends many hours watching replays, reading scrapbooks and reminiscing with her friends of the good old day at Glenferrie.
A footnote; Volunteers preparing meals for players has been an ongoing service at Hawthorn since the mid 1940s when the Ladies Committee led by Mrs Wallace (the wife of Head Trainer, Beau Wallace) provided hot pies and cups of tea and later in the 1950s, Thelma Kinder (the wife of boot studder Harold Kinder) prepared hot soup for the playing group on Thursday nights at Glenferrie.
Volunteer Val Milgate pointing to her brother Bobby in a photo in the stairway of memories.
