Cell Phones for Soldiers
By Cat Parsons
Some of you faithful Amazon.com purchasers like me may have noticed a strange little plastic bag in your latest box of books, CD’s or consumer electronics – a bag touting “Cell Phones for Soldiers”. These bags are part of a unique cell phone recycling program being sponsored by several companies including CEA members AT&T and ReCellular to recycle old phones by giving them to our troops overseas.
AT&T has also donated more than $500,000 worth of prepaid phone cards to Cell Phones for Soldiers. The program has been covered by several major news outlets, but I hadn’t heard of it until I opened a box of thank you cards I recently purchased. What a great idea – hats off to the sponsors.
The best part of the whole program is that consumers can send in their phones ABSOLUTELY free. You don’t even have to provide postage when you mail one in. And if you have a loved one serving overseas that is in need of a phone, the website offers a form where you can fill in their address to have one sent. You can also read some of the testimonials from servicemen and women on how this program has helped them keep in touch with their friends and families.
AT&T offers drop offs at their corporate stores for the Cell Phones for Soldiers program as well. The website has a link to the Cell Phone Data Eraser which offers a free solution for erasing all your personal information off the phone before donation. Saturday is Armed Forces Day, so what better time to sort through that desk drawer and send in those old phones for a good cause.
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