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30 - The Oakville Beaver, Friday February 8, 2008 www.oakvillebeaver.com Cash Back Now On Your Car Insurance Insurance company rates are $100's, even $1,000's apart for the same car and driver. For Free...InsuranceHotline.com instantly quotes you the best price available from over 30 of the top insurance companies. 80% of drivers that go on-line find an average savings of $780, instantly. Then you decide if you'd rather wait for your insurance to renew, or get your money back NOW by switching to a better priced insurance company. Make no mistake...It's easy to switch. InsuranceHotline.com emails you your quote and gives you the name of the insurance company that has the best rate, along with their contact information. Lee Romanov President, InsuranceHotline.com Youth does her part By David Lea OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF All you need to do is call the contact provided by InsuranceHotline.com. The insurance rep will do the rest. Look at this chart...There's a spread of $1,000's from the insurance company offering the lowest rate to the highest rated company. 30 Insurance Companies Quoted ­ Lowest to Highest Rate Driving Record Good Record Vehicle Pontiac Grand Am SE 4DR Chevrolet Blazer S Series 2DR 4WD LOW $1,313 HIGH $4,698 2 Tickets $1,588 $5,509 The probability of you being insured, right now, with the insurance company that has the best rate for you is low. InsuranceHotline.com directs you to the best priced insurance company. InsuranceHotline.com finds this rate for drivers! $5,000 $4,500 $3,500 $3,000 $2,500 $1,500 $1,000 $500 Go to www.InsuranceHotline.com and get your money back now. She's only 12, but thanks to her efforts, 60 orphans in Zimbabwe will get nourishing meals they otherwise wouldn't have. Last March Break, Savannah Grodecki, of St. Mildred's Lightbourn School, decided not to go on an ordinary vacation to a hot spot, instead visiting Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, where her aunt Cecelia Paouch is Project Director and Administrator for Child Care Plus, a sponsorship program, which is caring for 275 children in the African country. "I'd always wanted to go there and see where she lives and works. I asked my parents and they said yes and I took an extra week off school, so I could be there for three weeks," said Grodecki. "I just felt the need to go there and thought maybe I could make a difference." Upon arriving, Grodecki quickly discovered the country is a place of paradoxes, with some people living in enormous opulent mansions, while others live in improvised shacks with mud walls and sheets of metal standing in for roofs. Dining at a restaurant in Harare also proved to be baffling -- while the restaurant appeared high class, it had very little food to offer. "You'd look at the menu and say, `Wow this looks good. I'd like to order this,' and the waiter would say, `I'm sorry, but we're all out of that,'" said Grodecki. "It wasn't so much a matter of you PHOTO COURTESY SAVANNAH GRODECKI HELPING KIDS: Twelve-year-old Savannah Grodecki with children in Zimbabwe. choosing something from the menu, so much as asking them what they had and maybe they'd have four things available from the menu." The economy of Zimbabwe has been in tatters ever since its President Robert Mugabe forced the seizure of whiteowned commercial farms in an act he claimed would benefit landless black Zimbabweans. The result, however, was the collapse of the country's agricultural-based economy and the emergence of inflation and chronic food and fuel shortages. Grodecki's grandfather Joe Paouch saw the desperation present in Zimbabwe first hand while visiting his daughter Cecelia. "We were at a grocery store and the shelves were bare," he said. "On another day, we saw a line up of 200 people because of a rumour that the store might be getting some bread." As if economic issues were not enough, the country is also struggling with a merciless AIDS epidemic, which is killing 3,000 people each week. This crisis in turn has created one million orphans, some of whom Grodecki met as she helped her aunt with her Child Care Plus duties. "I started to get more interested and then in maybe the last week I was there I started to help feed the children and teach them different things like the alphabet. I also taught them a bit of English," she said. "They had food there, but not a lot. Some children walk for miles when they hear there is food at a particular orphanage or school." Grodecki's desire to help did not fade when she returned home, but intensified to the point where she sponsored a child and approached her school to get permission for a fundraising project. Filling two jars with candy, Grodecki and a friend began circulating flyers around her school advertising a `Candy Guess,' inviting students to buy raffle tickets and guess how many candies were in the jars. The combination of charity and candy resulted in a huge student turnout. From the `Candy Guess' and a few other fundraising initiatives, Grodecki succeeded in raising $484.55. While that may not seem like much by Canadian standards, in Zimbabwe it can mean the difference between life and death for a large number of children. "My aunt has emailed me and said she's already used it in a couple of different orphanages," said Grodecki. Grodecki's grandmother Sophie Paouch emphasized how a small gesture can mean so much to those in need. "My daughter (Cecelia) has already noticed a big difference in the children because they're fed and they're happy, they're learning better and they're singing," she said tearfully. "It makes all the difference in the world just for them to know somebody loves them." With this fundraising drive complete, Grodecki plans another in the near future. Her reasons are simple. People need help and while she can't save every person in Zimbabwe she can save some. "If I just saw this on TV, I'd be like everybody else, just like, `Okay, that's sad, who cares?' but I've done this and I know it helps them so I'm not leaving it. If it helps them I'll just keep doing it," she said. Contact Child Care Plus Emergency Relief & Development Overseas at 905-542-7400. Donations are tax deductible.