A FORMER Macroom Guide, Mary Heffernan O’Connor, has recently been elected as regional commissioner for the southwest region of Irish Girl Guides, an area that covers Cork, Kerry, and west Waterford.
Mary is currently a Guide Leader in Boherbue and spent a number of years also as a senior branch and Ladybird Leader in the Boherbue units.
She was area commissioner for the Blackwater area prior to her election as regional commissioner.
Mary has previously been a Guide Leader and district commissioner in Tralee and served two terms of office representing the southwest region on the national Guide branch committee.
A member of Guiding in Macroom for many years, Mary achieved the highest award in Guiding – the Gold Cord Award - and as a member of MacEgan Rangers, completed all three Gaisce awards, bronze, silver and gold.
In 1988 Mary was selected as a Ranger of the IGG team along with Deirdre Keenan from MacEgan Rangers to attend Eurofolk in Italy.
In 1989, she was selected as part of the IGG team that sailed on the Queen Gadrielle sail training ship from Dublin to Glasgow. In 1994, Mary was again selected as IGG member of the youth delegation to the world conference in Denmark.
Mary is an avid outdoor leader and camper and has attended the three IGG international camps in Ireland and will be taking a group to next year’s international camp in Kildare.
Mary has also been joint camp chief for two regional camps in the past few years.
Everyone at Macroom Guiding have congratulated Mary on her appointment and wish her the very best of luck with her term.
