14 DAY TRIAL // In a piece of news that fits well with today's holiday (July 4, the Independence Day), AT&T has announced that, together with CPFS (Cell Phones for Soldiers), it had raised more than $2 million that will be used to offer free phone cards for the US troops and their families.
The largest US mobile carrier and the CPFS military charity are envolved in a phone recycling program since July 2007. Helped by CPFS, over 2,000 AT&T stores from all around the US are gathering recycled phones from conscious users, and this allowed the two parties to reach the $2 million mark.
By April 2009, AT&T wants to recycle at least 1.8 million phones, thus raising even more money to help the US troops communicate with their families.
Paul Roth, president of Marketing and Sales for AT&T's wireless unit, declared, "We're focused on helping to keep military families connected. Our work with Cell Phones for Soldiers is one way we're doing that, and anyone can join us by dropping a used cell phone in our stores or by using the free resources available online. We know that we can make a difference because we've already seen it happen: Our weekly in-store recycling averages are three times what they were in 2007 and 17 times more than the same time in 2006".
Brittany Bergquist, CPFS co-founder, also said, "When we first sent an e-mail to AT&T more than a year and a half ago, we never dreamed the company's response would lead to so much more support for military families. AT&T has helped us reach more people with our mission - through more recycling locations, more phone cards for the troops, more public awareness for our cause, and now, new corporate partners who have noticed us and come on board to help. We are so grateful to AT&T for all of this, and we are excited to continue our recycling mission with them for another year. It means that more military families will be able to stay in touch. And that means a whole lot to us at Cell Phones for Soldiers".
Since AT&T joined CPFS in its actions, there have been about 200,000 free phone cards sent to military members. That's surely a praiseworthy effort, but I can't help thinking that, in an ideal world (free of wars and military conflicts), people would not have to be soldiers in the first place. But I guess we'll never get to live in such a world.