Your change is my car – one day
Every cent she collects counts towards a secondhand vehicle for Lorraine Grieb, 51.
She’s strapped for cash, but Lorraine Grieb, 51, is inspired to change her circumstances with Florida’s forgotten small change.
Her dream of one day owning a vehicle with which to transport her son is tied to finding rands and cents on chipped sidewalks on the streets of Florida. Grieb is an avid churchgoer and after reading about a woman succeeding in buying a secondhand vehicle with small change in a weekly magazine she told her dominee, “This is what I have to do”.
“It all started with an article I read in a magazine about a woman who bought a vehicle with change she had collected over the years. That lazy afternoon read inspired me and I immediately started collecting.”
The article appeared about two months ago, and since then Grieb has collected R399,40. A coin or two have been donated by residents who learned of her mission. She’s hoping to grow her collection of small change to about R40 000 and realising it won’t happen very soon, she says, “Look, it’s a process of finding and saving, finding and saving, but you have to start somewhere”. Grieb has been unemployed since 2006 and hasn’t owned a vehicle since her previous one broke down and had to be sold in 2010. Her son Marius,15, who attends Hoërskool Florida is her big inspiration. The divorcee walks approximately nine kilometres to school and back with him on certain weekdays.
“He’s a cricket player and plays for the Delfos Cricket Club at Cecil Payne Stadium. He also plays action cricket at Hillfox Action Cricket Arena, and I’d like to take him to those practices and to school myself.”
She hopes to start a community garden and to supply vegetables from this garden to less fortunate schools, organisations and retirement villages in the area.
What colour and what kind of vehicle would she buy if she could?
“A yellow one, preferably a Toyota.”
To get involved contact Lorraine on 083 390 2919.
