Cell Phones For Soldiers

Did you get a new cell phone recently? Bring your old cell phone to any Trucchi’s Supermarket.

As the local hometown supermarket for several towns in southeastern Massachusetts, we have many loyal customers visiting us regularly. Our customers share our company’s passion for helping to feed local families in need and our strong appreciation of our troops. With their help and our community’s help, we’re trying to collect as many old cell phones as possible through the first month of the new year.

Trucchi’s Supermarkets is doing its best to spread the word, starting with printing the message in the 160,000 ads we print each week in the hopes of promoting Cell Phones for Soldiers’ mission of helping every member of the Armed Services call home for free.

Cell Phones for Soldiers began in 2004 when siblings Brittany and Robbie Bergquist of Norwell, Massachusetts -then 13 and 12, respectively -heard about a Massachusetts Army Reserve sergeant who had accumulated a $7,624 cell phone bill calling his family while in Iraq.

What started as a small school collection, received an overwhelming surge in contributions and quickly ignited the inspiration to launch Cell Phones for Soldiers as a formal 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

The Department of Defense is unable to accept donated phones for security reasons. The Bergquist family adopted a novel approach to fundraising: recycling cell phones and using the proceeds to buy prepaid calling cards. In total, Cell Phones for Soldiers has provided more than $4 million in calling cards, using the proceeds from recycling old cell phones.

By donating, you are making it possible for a soldier to reconnect with their loved ones. Many of us keep in touch with family and friends constantly and take it for granted. What if that contact was cut off? Everyday men and women leave everything they know and love behind, just to protect our freedom and way of life. Our troops are willing to put their lives on the line to fight for their country and all of our hometowns, the very least we can do is afford them a call home.