PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — KOIN 6 and Portland’s CW are looking for nominees for our 2024 Remarkable Woman, an initiative that aims to recognize the contributions women have made in our local communities, but the 2023 winner is still making a difference.

Sara Olsher went through a lot in a matter of years, including divorce and fighting breast cancer, and it was impacting her daughter Charlie. Olsher then had an idea to create a board with magnets, showing when her daughter would see her father.

“Little kids need things explained to them because even though they can’t really speak, they understand way more than we give them credit for,” she said.

Olsher kept going, launching the Mighty and Bright website with her products and expanding into writing books about tough topics, such as cancer.

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“I remember she went into the car and she was crying and she said she had cancer and I was really scared,” Charlie told KOIN 6 News. “And then she wrote that book and it really helped.”

All of her accomplishments led to her being chosen as our Remarkable Woman for 2023, and since then, she’s continued her efforts to help children, with her latest creation being Stuart, a stuffed giraffe based on one of the constant characters in her books.

“Just taking something that is pretty rotten and turning it into something that helps other people is what has made my life have meaning,” Olsher said.