04/08/2026
Hello beautiful Signal Flare community, it's Berni here. I have not been posting here for a long time, and so for the new people here, I co-founded this amazing charity in 2012 with Grant the Polite Guy and stepped back as President at the end of 2025 with John being the current President. For the longer-time members, hello, it's so good to have been invited to post here. It's like coming home!
However, the reason I write here is a sad one. Those of you who have followed Signal Flare for a longer period of time, no doubt you remember my Co-Founder and the biggest piece of Signal Flare history, Grant the Polite Guy. Signal Flare originated in his heart and soul. He is and was the spirit of this amazing charity. I write here with the sad task of letting you know that Grant passed away on Sunday night after a long, brave and gracious health battle.
While he was homeless himself, Grant worked as a Big Issue vendor, and from the meagre income this job gave him, he bought food to give to other homeless people. While they were eating he listened to their stories to see if and how he could help them. As a Big Issue vendor in Brisbane's CBD he knew many people from all backgrounds and had many a useful contact to ask to help people who needed it. One day someone gave him a bag of ladies' clothes to give away to homeless women. He gave the clothes away and his heart sang, seeing the joy with which the ladies made the new clothes their own. He wanted to do more of that and started to collect clothes. BOQ bank generously gave him some storage space to use for the donated clothes. A friend of his suggested he'd get some sausages and they'd give the clothes away in the park at a sausage sizzle. And thus the BBQs were born. Grant really wanted to do more of this and collected more clothes. He was the busiest homeless man in Brisbane! He figured he could do a whole lot more if he had a charity. Sleeping on a park bench - he was still homeless at the time - Grant dreamed of the name of the charity: Signal Flare, because when you are in need and throw a signal flare, someone will come and help you...
When I met Grant he was at this stage where he had the dream. I will be forever grateful for learning from him what homelessness was like from the inside out, from lived experience. With the amazing Oddur and some more dedicated people we started to make the dream a reality and Signal Flare was born!
Grant fabulously got out of homelessness and whereas many others would have kept moving forward and not look back, Grant kept reconnecting with homelessness to continue to help others. For years we held our BBQs for the Homeless and Others in Need, predominantly in Brisbane and Ipswich. Grant already had severe health issues when we started this journey, but his heart was in Signal Flare and he was a champion of pushing through pain. His passion for the cause knew no bounds. We were a great, passionate team and worked on it all our spare time. As Signal Flare grew and grew so did our events.
However, the time came when Grant's health issues became so serious he had to step back from his beloved charity. He was glad I stayed on and cheered us on from the sidelines whenever he was well enough to attend.
And this Sunday Grant's body that had withstood so much over the years, gave way. We knew it was coming for a while, but still for me it was somehow also unimaginable that one day he would just not be here... That day has come... Grant is no longer here and all that remains is gratitude, love, and the spirit in which he served others. Grant would not want anybody to give up but to continue to be kind, helpful, hope-giving, and working on a better world.
I hope his heart will keep beating here with Signal Flare, that his compassion stays, that his vision that all people do matter and deserve kindness will stay alive here. That he will be remembered here, at the charity that he started and that had so much of his heart during his lifetime.
I hope that where he is now, he can look down for years to come and see that Signal Flare is alright, is thriving and continues to meet people where they are and inspire them to help themselves forward.
My heart goes out to Grant's family. Life will be so very different...
Fly high, dearest Grant. Be free, painless and boundlessly joyous. If anyone has earned it, it's you.
Rest In Peace 🕊️
Much love, Berni ❤️
