Community spirit award for unsung Cork hero

A Passage West woman who is the latest of a Cork Community Spirit award has said she was accepting the accolade on behalf of the people she worked with as she regarded her efforts to help out in her community as ‘very rewarding’.

Mary Foley was named as the recipient of the award which is sponsored by the Cork International Hotel, The Carrigdhoun newspaper and Gerald McCarthy Giftware at an event at the venue recently.

Her hectic schedule underlines why she was named as the winner of the award. In the citation she is described as the “driving force” behind the Passage West Children’s Choir, the Harbour Amateur Dramatic Group, the Sunshine and Smiles Club for children with disabilities, the Friday Club for young adults and the Passage West and Monkstown Cardiac First Responder Group.

Ms Foley told The Echo that she was delighted to receive the award and remarked that her voluntary roles provided her with many delightful moments which were very rewarding in themselves.

“There’s a lot of things that I’m involved in but every single one of them brings me so much pleasure,” said Ms Foley. “The work I do with the first responder group, to be with a family on what is probably the worst day of their lives, and to be able to provide care while they’re waiting for an ambulance to arrive is so rewarding, it’s tough work and it can be all hours of the day and night.

“If ever I have to drop everything else and pick one, I’d probably find that the hardest to let go.”

Ms Foley was the founder of the first responder group, which was one of the earliest to be founded in the country, and she also offers training to certification standards in first aid and introduced the Scouts and Guides to basic first aid training as well as supporting the Passage West Pharmacy in delivering a special first aid training night.

She also spoke about the special moments she enjoyed working with the Sunshine and Smiles Club.

“One of the games we play is musical chairs and there’s one particular child that springs to mind when we play the game because he loves it as he’s in a wheelchair, and he’s always going to win — it’s smashing when you see him, and he’s non-verbal, throwing his hands around the place in delight.

“It’s moments like these that make every minute of it worthwhile, every minute.”

While she was delighted to receive the award, she was adamant in saying she was only accepting it on behalf of the many people she worked with in the different groups with which she was involved. “It’s lovely of course but I can have all these wonderful ideas of different things we could do but none of these things would happen without the people who work with me on each of those initiatives,” she said paying tribute to all those she works with.