LCHS Leaf Club and Lincoln PD partner with Cell Phones for Soldiers to provide troops with free calls home

[January 21, 2015]  LINCOLN - The Lincoln Police Department, Lincoln Community High School LEAF Club, and nonprofit Cell Phones For Soldiers Inc. are asking residents to help our troops call home by donating old cellular phones and cords. Although the military landscape is ever changing, as many as 200,000 troops are serving in the United States military overseas around the world. By donating to Cell Phones For Soldiers, Lincoln residents can provide a lifeline for America’s bravest.

Beginning today, residents can donate their phones at the Lincoln Community High Schools Assistant Principals Office in the circle drive between 8am and 3pm or the Lincoln Police Department 24 hours a day. Our goal is over 1000 phones for 2015!

Cell Phones For Soldiers was founded in 2004 by teenagers Robbie and Brittany Bergquist at the ages of 12 and 13. The charity has since provided more than 210 million minutes of free talk time to servicemen and women stationed around the world through its calling card program, Minutes That Matter. Funds raised from the recycling of cellular phones are used to purchase prepaid international calling cards. On average, Cell Phones For Soldiers distributes 3,200 calling cards each week to bases around the world, care package programs, deployment ceremonies and VA hospitals.

Donated phones are sent to Mindful eCycling for recycling. For every donated phone valued at $5, Cell Phones For Soldiers is able to provide two and a half hours of free talk time to deployed troops.

Approximately half of the phones Mindful eCycling processes are reconditioned and reused.

Phones and components that cannot be refurbished are dismantled and responsibly recycled to reclaim materials, including:

• Gold, silver and platinum from circuit boards
• Copper wiring from phone chargers
• Nickel, iron, cadmium and lead from battery packs
• Plastic from phone cases and accessories

For more information, please visit www.cellphonesforsoldiers.com  or contact Assistant Principal Rhonda Hyde at LCHS 217-732-4131 ext. 224 or Officer Butterfield at 217-732-4131 ext. 607.

[LCHS Assistant Principal Rhonda Hyde]