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OLD CELL PHONES NEEDED AT RACE
Published on Sunday, June 29, 2008
Race Teams up With Cell Phones for Soldiers
Cell Phones: Brittany and Robbie Bergquist (right) have collected more than 500,000 cell phones, converting them to $ 1million and 450,000 phone cards for men and women serving overseas.
The CIGNA Falmouth Road Race is partnering with the Norwell-based group Cell Phones for Soldiers.
Brittany and Robbie Bergquist are teenage siblings who didn't even own a cell phone in 2004, when they heard that an local Army reservist faced a $7,600 bill for making calls home from Iraq. The two teens decided to try to help pay his bill. They took their piggybank funds and talked their friends into an effort to help (piggy banks, bake sales, car washes, etc). They founded Cell Phones for Soldiers based on three ideas: most people have an old, inactive cell phone lying around; they'd probably donate it to the right cause; and they would agree that, as Brittany puts it, "Everyone has a right to call home."
In three years, an effort that began with a piggybank raid and a car wash has turned into a booming home-based charity — one that has turned its founders' lives upside down and won them devoted friends throughout the military and beyond.
Cell Phones for Soldiers solicits unwanted cell phones, sells them to a recycler and uses the money to buy pre-paid phone cards that are shipped to men and women serving overseas.
Race co-director John Carroll said “We are very happy to work with CPFS. The races goal is to collect over 2,500 phones. Most people have one or more old phones at home. We are asking our runners, friends and family members to bring them with them when they come to get their race numbers. We will take all types of cell phones. Any phone CPFS gets is worth $5 of free minutes in a call home for a soldier overseas. There are a lot of phones sitting in drawers and bottom of closets not being used that could help a our troops call their families. We really want our runners to help us in this program. Our military men/women are very important. My son, John, a U.S, Air Force captain, stresses that it is extremely beneficial for his service friends to be able to reach out to hear a friendly voice. So please go searching for your old cell phones."
Cell phones may also be dropped off at the race office at 661C Main Street, Falmouth, any weekday.
A story about the program appears in USA Today and can be read online at www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-11-26-phone-home_N.htm.