Cell phones are a popular gift each year during the holidays, and they’re also something just about every REALTOR® has and upgrades frequently. As we enter the holiday season, please remember to put your used or discarded cell phone to good use by donating them to Cell Phones for Soldiers.
KCRAR has collected over 100 cell phones for Cell Phones for Soldiers since December 2008. Cell Phones for Soldiers is a national charity that hopes to turn old cell phones into more than 12 million minutes of prepaid calling cards for U.S. troops stationed overseas. To do so, Cell Phones for Soldiers expects to collect 50,000 cell phones each month through a network of more than 3,000 collection sites across the country.
The phones are sent to ReCellular, which pays Cell Phones for Soldiers for each donated phone – enough to provide an hour of talk time to soldiers abroad.
“Americans will replace an estimated 130 million cell phones this year,” says Mike Newman, vice president of ReCellular, “with the majority of phones either discarded or stuffed in a drawer. Most people don’t realize that the small sacrifice of donating their unwanted phones can have a tremendous benefit for a worthy cause like Cell Phones for Soldiers.”
Cell Phones for Soldiers was founded by teenagers Robbie and Brittany Bergquist from Norwell, Mass., with $21 of their own money. Since then, the nonprofit organization has raised almost $2 million in donations and distributed more than 500,000 prepaid calling cards to soldiers serving overseas.
Through increased fundraising efforts, the Bergquist family hopes to raise more than $9 million in the next five years to fund new programs, such as providing video phones with prepaid service to allow soldiers abroad to see their families on a regular basis.
If you have any used cell phones in any condition, please feel free to bring them to the KCRAR office as a donation to Cell Phones for Soldiers. All donations are tax-deductable and donation receipts are available.
If you have any questions, please contact Cristalle Bozarth at 913-266-5908 or cristalleb@kcrar.com.
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