A touch of showbiz glamour for all the Local Super Heroes . . .

TRACY Griffin from Ballycullen Food Bank was crowned Knocklyon Network’s Local Super Hero at an awards ceremony in the Iona Centre last week.

A touch of showbiz glamour was brought to proceedings by MC Adele King, aka Twink, who spoke about her passion for Knocklyon and her pride in the area.

However, the true stars of the event were the nominees, who were previously recognised as Knocklyon Network’s Monthly Hero across six months.

The nominees were Tracy Griffin, Gabriel Curtis, Linda Roberts, Ruth Kelly, Alan O’Flaherty and Marion Sweetman.

The winner on the night was Tracy Griffin, with Ruth Brady from Knocklyon Network telling The Echo that Tracy was a deserved winner, who was selected by a public vote.

“Tracy was pretty surprised, I think,” said Ruth. “Her friends that were with her let out the biggest roar when she won – they were absolutely thrilled.

“It was a public vote, so we had no control over the winner, but it was well deserved because of the really valuable work that Tracy and her team do.

“It’s absolutely shocking that, in this day and age, people are wondering when they’re going to get food from one day to the next.

“But Tracy treats people so discreetly and with sensitivity. She’s just incredible, and she set up a partnership for people in the community to drop in donations.”

The idea for the Local Super Hero Award, which was held for the first time this year, came from Ruth having a desire to recognise the unsung heroes quietly helping the local community.

“I came up with the idea for it about a year-and-a-half-ago, because there are so many people in the community who go unrecognised, but they make our community really great,” she said.

“I just thought, let’s celebrate them and do something for them.”

She then pitched the idea to SuperValu Knocklyon, who happily backed the event and supplied refreshments for the awards ceremony.

“We ran a Local Hero Award for six months, where members of the public submitted nominations for their Hero of the Month,” explained Ruth.

“We had a judging panel made up of local representatives and each winner won €100.

“We did that with the intention of having an overall Local Super Hero and that’s what we did last week.

“We had a public vote and it was overwhelming – Tracy got 71 per cent of the vote.

“People really enjoyed it, and there was a strong appetite to get behind it.”

As for any future Local Super Hero Awards, Ruth said that she hopes to continue it but will perhaps change the format for any future iterations.

“We might look to reinvent it a little, but it will still be something that will recognise the work that people do in the community,” she said. “It will continue on in some shape or form.”

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