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| Help VIPMOAA fill more boxes of used cell phones - to give more calling minutes to deployed soldiers. |
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Donate cell phones that you no longer use or need to "Cell Phones For Soldiers" via VIPMOAA. The phones will be recycled and the funds used to purchase calling card minutes for deployed military. Bring your cell phones to a VIPMOAA meeting, or give to a board member any time or drop in one of the collection boxes VIPMOAA has arranged. Primary contact at VIPMOAA is our president, Frank Duckett. As of Nov 2011,VIPMOAA has submitted
OVER 300 CELL PHONES
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The Auxiliary Member Advisory Committee (AMAC) at National MOAA adopted a program called Cell Phones for Soldiers, to furnish pre-paid phone cards to servicemembers to enable them to stay in touch with their families while away from home. The program has been in existence since 2004 and has resulted in more than 60 million minutes of free talk time for our troops. The AMAC is asking each council and chapter nationwide to help with this endeavor. Their goal is to donate one million minutes of prepaid talk time so our deployed fighting forces can call home. They estimate that they will need to collect about 16,700 old cell phones in order to meet this goal. That translates into about 40 old phones per chapter. Our chapter is well beyond that, with 215 cell phones turned in as of 30 Sep 2011.
The cell phones are recycled and the resulting funds are used to purchase the prepaid minutes. Each recycled cell phone will yield about 60 minutes of free talk. It is estimated that up to 130 million cell phones are retired each year in the United States, but only about 10% of them are recycled.
The VIPMOAA Board of Directors, at its February 2011 meeting, decided to support the AMAC and the Cell Phones for Soldiers program. The drive lasts through January 2012. Results will be announced in Washington DC this Spring at a National MOAA meeting. Our part is collecting discarded cell phones, turning them in to the Cell Phones for Soldiers recycling center and reporting our success to National MOAA.
Items accepted for recycling are cell phones, blackberries and palms, to minimize weight and save on postage, the batteries, chargers and accessories are not required. Collections are at both VIPMOAA membership and board meetings. Past President Blair Smith collects cell phones at Warwick Forest and Vice President John Harms collects them at Patriots Colony. We also have partnered with Naval Federal Credit Union and some area realtors. We gladly accept offers to assist with collection efforts.
I am pleased that VIPMOAA has far exceeded the goal and continues our collection efforts.
/ VIPMOAA President, Frank Duckett, Maj, USAF, Ret
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| One of our collection boxes is at a Williamsburg Realtor Office. Others are at area Credit Unions and other places. This photo was featured in an article in the Williamsburg Gazette. |
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Photos at right are posted as thumbnails. Click on individual photo to see larger version.
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