Posted 1:42 pm Sunday, November 16, 2008
Cub Scouts Collect 245 Cell Phones To Help Soldiers
By KELLY GOOCH
Staff Writer
Staff Writer
WHITEHOUSE -- Cub Scouts of Den 8 in Whitehouse were busy Saturday collecting cell phones that will essentially provide phone cards for soldiers overseas so they can call home.
The group of second-graders collected 245 cell phones at Whitehouse City Park, and assistant den leader Jeanette Knight was sure they would collect more in the coming week.
"I think it's been a huge success," Knight said. "And it's nice to know how many people care."
It is also good for children and adults to observe that the Cub Scouts are thinking about soldiers, she said.
Gail Smith, event coordinator and mother of a cub scout, previously told the Tyler Paper den leader Toby Breland wanted parents to come up with project ideas. Her older son, who is serving in Iraq, told Smith about Cell Phones for Soldiers.
The cell phones the Cub Scouts collected will be sent to a recycler in Michigan called ReCellular, said Bob Bergquist, president of Cell Phones for Soldiers, during an interview Thursday.
Each phone will have a specific value, depending on age and quality, he previously said, and the money will be put into an account that is used to purchase the phone cards from AT&T.
Bergquist also said during the Thursday interview that the average value of a cell phone is between $3 and $4, and the phone cards will have about 100 minutes on them.
LaTrail Bowie, activity director at Park Place Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Tyler and a mother of a Cub Scout, was just one person who brought cell phones to Saturday's collection event.
Bowie said the 25 cell phones she was able to collect came from employees and family members of residents at Park Place.
She put up signs at the nursing and rehabilitation center, she said, and had a box where people could put cell phones.
"It was for a good cause. I'm going to support whatever they're (Den 8) doing and put my all into it," Bowie said.
She said she also helped pass out fliers on Tuesday at Brookshire's in Whitehouse and on Thursday at various locations in Tyler.
Bowie noted that she talked with a former soldier who said they wished the program Cell Phones for Soldiers had been around when they were serving.
"I just think it's a wonderful idea," she said. "A lot of them can't phone home � it means everything for them to be able to call home."
And Cub Scouts commented on being involved with the collection event.
"It is better to give than to receive," Christopher Knight, 7, said of what he has learned.
LaJavion Mosley, 7, said, "It was a good way to let the soldiers call home."
Smith plans to send the phones to ReCellular by the end of this week.
She said people can still call 903-839-2066 and arrange to drop off cell phones.
