Knoxville, Tenn. – Cellular Sales, the nation’s largest Verizon Wireless retailer, has joined forces with Cell Phones for Soldiers at many of its stores throughout the United States. Cell Phones for Soldiers is a worldwide nonprofit group that distributes free telephone calling cards to U.S. troops serving overseas.
Dane Scism, founder and CEO of Cellular Sales, said, “We are excited to be able to give back to the soldiers that serve this country. With so many troops in active service, we believe we can make a positive impact by partnering with Cell Phones for Soldiers.”
Used cell phones can be dropped at most Cellular Sales locations.
Cell Phones for Soldiers turned old cell phones into more than 14 million minutes of prepaid calling cards for U.S. service men and women in 2009. To do so, Cell Phones for Soldiers collected approximately 50,000 cell phones each month through a network of more than 6,000 collection sites across the country.
The phones are sent to a company that pays Cell Phones for Soldiers for each donated phone. Every phone donated to Cell Phones for Soldiers generates about an hour of talk time for a soldier abroad. Americans replace an estimated 130 million cell phones each year.
Cell Phones for Soldiers was founded in 2004 by teenagers Robbie and Brittany Bergquist from Norwell, Mass. Between them, the two teens had a total of $21 to start the organization. Since that time, the organization has raised well over $2 million in donations and distributed more than 500,000 prepaid calling cards to soldiers serving overseas.
“Cell Phones for Soldiers started as a small way to show our family’s appreciation for the men and women who have sacrificed the day-to-day contact with their own families to serve in the U.S. armed forces,” said the teens’ father, Bob Bergquist. “Over the past few years, we have been overwhelmed by the generosity of others – but we have also seen the need to support our troops continue to grow as more troops are sent overseas for longer assignments.”
Through increased fundraising efforts, the Bergquist family hopes to raise more than $9 million in the next five years to fund new programs including providing video phones with prepaid service to allow soldiers abroad to see their families on a regular basis.
Cellular Sales, the nation’s largest retailer of Verizon Wireless, is a 16-year old privately held company headquartered in Knoxville, Tenn. The company currently operates throughout the United States. By year end, Cellular Sales – which attributes its rapid growth to unparalleled customer service – will open 50 new stores, bringing the company’s total number of locations to approximately 350. For the past two years, Inc. magazine named Cellular Sales one of the nation’s fastest growing retail companies in the country.
According to Scism, the company will roll the Cell Phones for Soldiers program – which is already successful at many of his company’s more than 300 locations – out at all of the company’s stores throughout the United States in coming months.
For more information about Cellular Sales and the Cell Phones for Soldiers program, or to find a Cellular Sales used cell phone drop-off location near you, visit the company’s web site at www.cellularsales.com.
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Rick Laney
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Cellular Sales stores opened at 10720 US Hwy 441 in Leesburg, Fla. and 160 Dolson Avenue in Middletown, N.Y. last week.
