South East Radio / Talbot Hotel Person of the Month Awards
Profiles of Nominees for Person of the Month March 2011 - February 2012
March - Bernie O' Neill Bernie O Neill who hails from Enniscorthy has done tremendous work over the past 10 years in raising much needed funds for local charities County wide.
Bernie and her mother before her are Irish dance teachers giving her the inspiration to set up Celebrity Jigs and Reels. In 2009 Bernie and her dance troop raised a staggering €75,000 for charities. 22 Wexford “celebrities” gave their time to work with another 22 dancers to develop their own unique dance routine to compete in the jigs and reels competition. The competition had huge appeal as it involved people in the local community giving to charities in the local community. To date Celebrity Jigs and Reels has raised €140,000 for 44 charities in County Wexford.
Charities like Make a wish Foundation, St Patricks Special School in Enniscorthy, Search and Rescue in Enniscorthy , The alzheimers unit in St Senans are among the charities benefiting from this fantastic initiative.
And as if this wasn’t enough Bernie became involved with the Special Olympics in County Wexford. She is on the local Enniscorthy Special Olympic Committee. She travels to Athens in the coming weeks to accompany the team. Only 2 people from the Enniscorthy committee are travelling with the Special Olympic team and Bernie is one of these. She had to raise €3250 to pay for her flights and accommodation. She has been working with local athletes to help train them and prepare them for the upcoming event.
Bernie has also had a long standing involvement as a volunteer on an annual trip to Lourdes where she helps those in need throughout their stay in Lourdes so that they experience the pilgramage to its full.
April - Shirley O Connor For the past 8 years Shirley O Connor from Ballyedmond, has been a volunteer leader with the Monamolin Foroige Youth Club. During this time she has been a member of the Wexford District Council of Foroige and has presented the Wexford Foroige Clubs on the National Council and National Executive of Foroige. She is a trained mentor in the Youth Adult Support programme. She is currently one of the representatives on the board of management of the primary school in Monamolin along with being a member of the Gorey area Community Forum. All of this work is done in a voluntary capacity with nothing asked by Shirley in return.
In addition to all of her youth work, Shirley is a carer for her mother and has herself recently been diagnosed with cancer but in true form she carries on regardless. Shirley is a very motivated person, hard working and an active member of our community. She believes that if there is something wrong, not to complain and do your best to make it better. She is always on hand to help out whatever the situation.
Through her involvement with the youth club she has encouraged the youth of the area to take leadership. She helps them to develop programmes, projects and activities and realise their full potential and become active members in their community and beyond.
