Sarah Elsworth: Ulladulla community remembers pregnant mother killed in car crash

A pregnant mother who died in a horror crash has been remembered at an “emotional day”, with a south coast rugby league family banding together to pay tribute and show their support.

Sarah Elsworth (right) was killed in a car crash south of Nowra last week.

A pregnant mother killed in a tragic car crash has been remembered in an “emotional” day at her rugby league club, which saw her community come out in droves to remember the “beautiful, young woman taken too soon”.

Sarah Elsworth, 23, was killed on last Monday on the Princes Hwy near Jerrawangala, when her car collided with a truck.

The tragedy left her hometown of Ulladulla and her family’s rugby league club, the Milton-Ulladulla Bulldogs in shock, who paid tribute and raised financial support for the Elsworth family during Sunday’s home fixtures.

Club secretary Sally Stewart said the game day began with a minute of silence for the family, before Sarah’s partner Marc and their baby daughter ran onto the field with their football team.

“Sarah’s partner Marc was there with their little girl and the crowd which was huge and filled with the community all paid tribute with a minute of silence before the games,” she said.

Players from both sides and the audience participated in a minute of silence for Sarah before games kicked off.

“Every player in all six games on the day also wore pink armbands for Sarah.”

Sarah had been a member of the club for years, playing in the women’s senior competition on weekends while her husband, Marc, played for the men’s team.

Players ran through a balloon arch displaying Sarah's name on the game day on Sunday.

“The club was part of their every day lives,” Ms Steward said. “And you could see that on Sunday, the oval was the busiest I had ever seen it.”

“The entire community came out to show their support to the Elsworth family.”

Along with the minute of silence, the club also paid tribute to Sarah with a balloon arch, which players ran under to enter the field.

“All proceeds earned on the day through the gate-takings also went to the family and a donation bucket went around the crowd,” Ms Stewart said.

A wall with photos paying tribute to Sarah was on display at the Sunday game day.

While Ms Stewart was unsure how much money the club raised, she said it was in the thousands of dollars.

Sarah’s partner Marc said he was thankful to everyone who came out on the day to support his family.

“He was overwhelmed by the support from everyone,” Ms Stewart said. “It’s so clear how much Sarah meant to everyone.”

Good friend of the Elsworth family and owner of Ulladulla barbershop YFBFB Tom Woodward also went out of his way to raise money for the family, giving all profits earned on Friday and Saturday to Marc.

“It was originally supposed to just be Friday, but it was so amazing, we had to do it again,” Mr Woodward said.

While Mr Woodward said he wouldn’t disclose the amount earned for the family, he mentioned it was some of the busiest days the shop had seen.

“The community banded together to help Marc and his daughter which is all that matters,” he said.

Sarah will be farewelled by family and friends at her funeral on Thursday at the Ulladulla Dunn Lewis Centre.