Garden enthusiast Sara Hamilton would love nothing more than to see her community taking pride in their environment and living a sustainable lifestyle.
Ms Hamilton has won a $5000 AMP regional scholarship that she will use to aid her dream of creating a community that can feed itself from its backyard gardens.
"My [Grow for Life and Love] project started as volunteer work, getting tamariki involved and taking ownership [of their environment] and now, hopefully trickling that back into the community."
This project became a major focus for Ms Hamilton in 2014 when she began working with Totara Grove School, between Kamo and Tikipunga, as a volunteer and used her love of gardening to instil environmental pride in the young children of the community.
She is now employed 10 hours a week by the school; however she volunteers much more time in the project she is so passionate about, and describes her work with Totara Grove School as "a launching pad" for what she hopes to achieve in the community in the future.