Sara is a counsellor working creatively in adult mental health and volunteering within her community. When she’s not doing that, she’s tending to her allotment or acting as a very comfortable cushion for her greyhound. Through both her professional and personal life, she has seen how grief can feel deeply isolating — even though it is something everyone eventually experiences.

With $500, Sara will invite local people to create small artistic tributes to someone they have loved and lost. Participants will make paper or textile collages accompanied by a photograph or short piece of writing that captures a memory — perhaps a personal quirk, a treasured object, a skill, or a moment that still makes them smile.

These pieces will then be exhibited in a welcoming community space, such as a local park café, where others can pause, reflect, and connect with the shared experience of remembering. By making grief visible in everyday places, Sara hopes to help normalise it, reduce feelings of isolation, and celebrate the ordinary people who have shaped our lives in meaningful ways.

The project is also in memory of Sara’s younger brother Chris, who died ten years ago. Though he struggled with his own mental health, he is remembered by his friends as a calming, kind presence — someone who was simply wonderful to spend time with. Through this project, Sara hopes to honour that kind of quiet goodness in many others too.