RELO Roundtable…a gathering place

Was Santa good to you this year? Did you find that brand new cell phone you’ve been wishing for in your stocking? If so, have I gotta a deal for you!

While researching some of the resources for the new Miltary Moves page in the Wiki-Research section, I noticed a link at Army Wife Talk Radio to a site called Cell Phones for Soldiers. The more I read, the more intrigued I became. 

Four years ago, 13-year old Brittany Bergquist and her brother Robbie, 12, saw a story on T.V. about a young soldier in Iraq who was saddled with a $7624.00 cell phone bill because he forgot about the exorbitant “roaming charges to call home. Perhaps you read or saw how the kids broke open their piggy banks as the first step of a remarkable project to help their inexperienced protector pay his obligation to the phone company.

With help of their parents, classmates and friends, the two youngsters started a cell phone recycling program. They collect donations of old, used cell phones that would otherwise be discarded or disposed of and turn them into a recycler which pays Cell Phones for Soldiers for each donated phone – enough to provide an hour of talk time to soldiers abroad.   

In 2008, Cell Phones for Soldiers expected to collect 50,000 cell phones through a network of more than 3,000 collection sites across the country and turn them into more than 12 million minutes of prepaid calling cards for U.S. troops stationed overseas.  

Now I just bet that you know someone who found a new cell phone wrapped up under the Christmas tree. If not you then perhaps it was a family member, coworker, salesperson, driver, vendor, or friend.  

When you think of how much everyone in the relocation business relies on these mobile communications tools, your personal network of contacts could provide a huge block of talk time to the families of the lonely soldiers who are part of the moving and storage industry’s largest customer. 

To help raise funds for Cell Phones for Soldiers, any old or unused cell phone can be dropped off at any of AT&T’s more than 2,000 company-owned stores across the U.S.  Click here for a list of locations. Or, you can mail in your used phone with free shipping from anywhere in the U.S. To download a postage-paid shipping label, click here.

Those north of the border interested in helping their troops can visit Cell Phones For Soldiers Canada, a site which is sponsored, in part, by AMJ Campbell Van Lines.