Have you seen Zee and her sewing machine? Read on about this story of paying it forward.

I’m sure that you would have seen the picture of Zee and her sewing machine on our social media recently. We wanted to share all the behind the scenes stories that made this moment possible and to send a special thank you to some amazing people in our community.  Cath Slater was a wonderful woman who was both a tutor and a mentor to our precious Zee up until she passed away from cancer. But even in her passing she has paid it forward and blessed our Zee with tools for her future.

Cath was also a photographer and once she had passed her mom, Allison Slater wanted to do something with her photographs. So Allison took some of the photographs that Cath had taken and she used them to make greeting cards. These greeting cards were then distributed to some local shops to be sold. The profit from each card was put into a savings fund for Zee. Creative Classroom (the school that Zee attends), also kindly sold a whole bunch of cards.

Together with us, her teachers at Creative Classroom and Allison we decided to put the money towards a sewing machine. Zee has always said she wanted to be a clothing designer and so we wanted to put the money towards something that would help her to establish a business for herself that could one day support her. We were able to buy her a new sewing machine.

Zee was overjoyed when she received her gift.

Since sharing the picture of Zee and her sewing machine, she has been gifted sewing lessons as well as money to purchase material and thread.

This is such a beautiful picture of a community pulling together. And whenever Zee uses her sewing machine she will be reminded of the wonderful Cath, who even in passing managed to pay it forward. Thank you to all for your generosity and kindness to our Zee.