A TELECOMMUNICATIONS company on Saipan has turned over 600 used cellular phones to be 
recycled and exchanged for free phone minutes for the CNMI’s deployed servicemembers.
Docomo Pacific general manager for Saipan operations James Nelson turned over three huge boxes containing the used cellular phones to CNMI Military and Veterans Affairs Executive Director Ruth Coleman on Friday.
Nelson said the cellular phones will be sent to ReCellular, a recycling company in the states.
In exchange, the recycling company will give prepaid calling cards to provide troops abroad 60 minutes of talk time for each card.
Nelson said the cellular phones were collected from units which were traded in during the “migration” from the CDMA to GSM system.
He said that they could come up with about 150 more used cellular phones.
Nelson said the value of the used cellular phones ranged from $12,000 to $15,000.
“Some of the phones are expensive,” he said.
Coleman told the Variety that giving CNMI’s servicemembers free phone cards to call their families will mean a lot to them.
“With the holidays just around the corner, it will help alleviate the loneliness of our servicemen and women to hear the voices of their loved ones,” Coleman said.
She said the “Cell Phones for Soldiers” program is just a small way to express appreciation for the sacrifices the servicemembers are making.
“Giving away your unused cellular phones to the Cell Phones for Soldiers is just a small sacrifice which could benefit many of our servicemembers,” Coleman said.
She said the CNMI has about 350 servicemembers deployed to different parts of the world, including 70 in the Middle East.
Two teenagers from Norwell, Massachusetts, Robbie and Brittany Bergquist, started the Cell Phones for Soldiers with $21 of their own money in April 2004.
Their goal is to help deployed soldiers call their homes by providing prepaid calling cards through donations and recycling of used cell phones.
Almost $2 million has been raised in donations and more than half a million prepaid calling cards have been distributed to servicemembers stationed overseas.
The Bergquist family is hoping to raise more than $9 million in the next five years to fund new programs like providing prepaid video phones to the deployed soldiers.
For more information, visit www.cellphonesforsoldiers.com.
