Cell Phone Donations ?

[kraigWY]

AT&T reciently bought out our local carrier, Alltel.

In the process we were given new At&T phones, so I'm setting on a half dozzen good cell phones (wife's mine, and grandkids).

Anyone know of a ligit group that needs cell phones?

Again, these are not broken, they worked until the service was shut off and we started using the AT&T Phones.

 

[KYS]

Re: Cell Phone Donations ?

Could check with all the Tornado victims in Alabama and so on..... Im sure that most were lost.

 

[ORD]

Re: Cell Phone Donations ?

In our area, you can donate cell phones to the local Rape & Domestic Violence Centers/Shelters as well as Relay for Life and similar programs (not sure about your AO, but might be worth a check around).

A friend of mine was just telling me the other day about some sort of "Cells for Soldiers" program that takes donated phones that they collect, recycles them and provides funds they raise to soldiers stationed overseas in the form of calling cards to help out. Inspired by some poor guy that apparently got a $10k cell phone bill after being stationed in A-stan or Iraq for a month.

Just some ideas...

 

[jcfd2201]

Re: Cell Phone Donations ?

www.cellphonesforsoldiers.com

 

[Keyser Söze]

Re: Cell Phone Donations ?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: ORD</div><div class="ubbcode-body">A friend of mine was just telling me the other day about some sort of "Cells for Soldiers" program that takes donated phones that they collect, recycles them and provides funds they raise to soldiers stationed overseas in the form of calling cards to help out. Inspired by some poor guy that apparently got a $10k cell phone bill after being stationed in A-stan or Iraq for a month.</div></div>

I remember seeing a commercial for this a while back. It seemed stupid to me. (no offense to anyone involved in it, maybe I am misundertanding something)

Why not take the phones that are donated and just reactivate them and give them to the soldiers to use? Why do they need to be "recycled" for what I am sure is just a few cents per phone? Surely just reactivating them would be a much better/cost effective/etc. idea.

 

[ORD]

Re: Cell Phone Donations ?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: jcfd2201</div><div class="ubbcode-body">www.cellphonesforsoldiers.com</div></div>

That's the one...don't know anything about it other than "what I was told" and what I just briefly read through on their website. Apparently, each phone donated to them buys the equivalent of a 1hr pre-paid phone card for a soldier.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Keyser Söze</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I remember seeing a commercial for this a while back. It seemed stupid to me. (no offense to anyone involved in it, maybe I am misundertanding something)

Why not take the phones that are donated and just reactivate them and give them to the soldiers to use? Why do they need to be "recycled" for what I am sure is just a few cents per phone? Surely just reactivating them would be a much better/cost effective/etc. idea. </div></div>

Take a look at the site that jcfd posted above. I think there is more to it than what I previously understood/posted about. They are getting approx. $5/phone from some of the info on the site. Regardless of how "efficient" or "inefficient" their program might be, keep soldiers in contact with their families with free phone cards sounds like a damn good idea to me. It is tough enough to be so far away and limited in contact much less having to worry about tightening the budget belt or otherwise paying for outrageous phone bills while Dad/Mom are overseas in harm's way. I think that reactivating the phones and then distributing them to soldiers would be much more costly.

 

[kraigWY]

Re: Cell Phone Donations ?

That's it, "Cell Phone for Soldiers"

I rememeber back in '03 when my wife as over there, my phone bill averaged $2,800 per month.

Thanks Guys

SALSA

 

[jcfd2201]

Re: Cell Phone Donations ?

We had quite a few old cell phones laying around that we had given the kids to play with after removing the battery. My wife saw a blog post about CPFS and decided to round the phones up. She let the boys each have one and mailed the rest off to CPFS. Regardless of what they do with the actual phone, if they make it easier for someone serving overseas to stay in touch with family and friends it's a good deal in my book. I made sure we deleted everything off the phones and removed any memory cards before she sent them off and would recommend you do the same.

 

[ubet]

Re: Cell Phone Donations ?

I always donate old phones to cpfs. Figured they are more needing of them, than anyone inside the USA.