Anyone who has served in the military, or who has had a loved one deployed in the military, knows how important a phone call home can be. On Memorial Day, anyone coming to the Peachtree City celebration can help ensure that deployed troops get plenty of phone calls home. The event will be accepting Cell Phones for Soldiers.
People can bring their old, defunct cell phones and place them in a collection bin. Memorial Day organizers will get them to a local drop-off point.
Cell Phones for Soldiers is a non-profit, 501c3 organization that was started in 2004 by a brother and sister, Robbie and Britanny Berquist, using $21 of their own money. Since then it has grown to collect more than 7.5 million cell phones and provide military personnel with more than 90 million minutes of pre-paid calling cards.
The program’s main revenue stream comes from the recycling of used cell phones. The phones are sent to recycling company ReCellular, which pays Cell Phones for Soldiers for each donated phone – enough to provide an hour of talk time to soldiers abroad.
“Cell Phones for Soldiers started as a small way to show our family’s appreciation for the men and women who have sacrificed the day-to-day contact with their own families to serve in the U.S. armed forces,” says the teens’ father, Bob Bergquist. “Over the past few years, we have been overwhelmed by the generosity of others. But, we have also seen the need to support our troops continue to grow as more troops are sent overseas for longer assignments.
The Peachtree City Memorial Day event will be held on Monday, May 30 starting with a public golf cart procession that starts at the Gathering Place at 8:30 a.m., and the main event at 9 a.m. at the City Hall/Library Plaza. Call 770-631-2542 for more information.
