JCI Dublin - Junior Chamber International Dublin

Congratulations to Marion Byrne who represented JCI Dublin at the TOYP award ceremony in Tullamore. Marion was the winner of the contribution to children, world peace, and/or human rights category. Marion is working in Bright Horizons as a Nursery Manager. She has gone from Team Leader to Deputy Manager to Nursery Manager in the space of four years.

Marion Byrne is a leader for the Catholic Girl Guides in Ringsend and this is where her work in the field is most evident. The group would have closed in Ringsend as nobody apart from Marion was willing to take it over. Marion single handily took up the role and fought to keep the Girl Guides open in her area. She also has restructured the group from its traditional form to facilitate younger members and to maintain members and train new leaders.

Marion has made a number of improvements the Catholic Girl Guides for its current members and also works to make it attractive for new members. She introduced additional outdoor and larger scale activities such as weekends away camping. Last July, the group went a trip to Holland, under Marion’s Guidance. They have also gone on trips to Belgium and Germany.

She intends to make trips to Europe an annual event as she strongly believes that international travel and experiences is vital to broaden young people’s minds and their outlook on life. This was a struggle on Marion’s part as some leaders were set on the traditional events that the Catholic Girl Guides held in the area. She acted as the pioneer in settling up the events and worked hard to get support. As a result of her persistence but now they too are taking part and enjoying the new program.

As a Catholic Girl Guides leader, Marion has organized fundraising events for charities such as “The Bubble Club” and “Down Syndrome Ireland”. However, the most spectacular event was the five-day trek across the Great Wall of China. For this the Girl Guides had to raise Euro 3,800. With Marion’s support and encouragement, they Girl Guides worked well as a team to achieve their goal. This included a three-hour fitness marathon, which was organized by Marion, bag packing events and a nappy changing day. Marion's group intended to raise Euro 3,000 but they gathered Euro 5,000 in total.

She has won awards “Make a Difference Award” and “Centre of Excellence Award” to individuals by Bright Horizons Family Solutions who demonstrate leadership and commitment to raising the quality of life for family and children in their community. Marion played a strong part with her colleagues to obtain the award. She also won “The Year of the Volunteer - Better Together Award” which was awarded by Dublin City Council recognise her commitment to work with the Girl Guides.