Tasmanian LiFE Awards – 2025 Nominee
Communities in Action for Suicide Prevention LiFE Award
The Communities in Action for Suicide Prevention LiFE Award acknowledges the crucial role that communities play in identifying and taking action towards suicide prevention. This award recognises any group or community, whether it’s a sports club, community group, or a hobby group, that works together to prevent suicide. This may involve developing a local plan for mental wellbeing and suicide prevention or organising activities that bring the community together to facilitate social connection and provide opportunities to discuss mental health and suicide prevention.
Proudly sponsored by Lifeline Tasmania
A Piano of Tasmania
Walking or running 1,271 metres up a mountain over 21.1 kilometres sounds hard enough. Pushing a 240kg piano up there in 24 hours sounds impossible. Point to Pinnacle is widely known to be the world’s toughest half marathon, but A Piano of Tasmania’s Piano to Pinnacle took it to a whole new level.
Serving as a vivid metaphor for what 24 hours in the life of someone living with mental illness looks like, Piano to Pinnacle aimed to raise awareness and funds for SPEAK UP! Stay ChatTY. The intention was to do something absurd enough to create smiles and start a gentle conversation about mental wellbeing. This intention was met, with the event gaining wide coverage through local and national media outlets. The community also came to support the event, with community members and other musicians turning out to watch, sing, play and donate. All up, over $30,000 was raised.
Pushing a piano from Hobart’s waterfront to the summit of Kunanyi was a physical and mental challenge, but it is not the first challenge Kelvin has had to overcome. A Piano of Tasmania has been shaped by his and his family’s lived experience of mental ill-health and suicide loss. A Piano of Tasmania was created to test the theory that a genuine smile could have a profound impact on mental wellbeing. The community’s ongoing support of the project and the turn out for Piano to Pinnacle suggests his theory is correct.
