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Phone Recycle

Putnam Leos prepare collected cell phones for shipping and refurbishing at their meeting March 23. This is the third year of the group’s collection for Hope Phones. Courtesy photo.

 

 

Club collects

'Hope phones'

PUTNAM — Members of the Putnam Leo Club recently kicked off their third annual “Cell Phone Recycle Campaign” for Hope Phones, a used cell phone drive that connects underserved communities with mobile communication. 

The Hope Phones campaign supports the efforts of parent organization Medic Mobile, formerly FrontlineSMS:Medic, a non-profit group that works to advance health care in 11 countries with and through mobile technology. 

According to Leo Club Vice President Mikayla Van Dam, The Putnam Leo Club first learned about this organization in 2012, and felt strongly about trying to support its goals.

“I know it is very easy for people now to receive money back from their phones,” said Van Dam when this year’s collection began, “but knowing that because of your contribution, more people are getting access to better health care is much more rewarding than a couple of extra dollars in [your] pocket.”

Van Dam’s confidence in the generosity of the Quiet Corner – and others – was not misplaced.

Nearly 180 phones – 176 – were donated to the effort this year. Three of them came from as far away as Branford. 

The effort and its success grows each year: in 2014, Putnam Lion and Leo Adviser Al Cormier extended the collection deadline to allow the youth group to collect and donate exactly 100 phones, double the 48 received in 2013.

Cormier expressed his pleasure with the continued growth and success of the collection drive during a Putnam Leo Club meeting arch 23. More than a dozen enterprising youth were on-hand to prepare, wrap and package the phones for shipping. Your phone will be shipped to Every Mother Counts, a non-profit organization in Texas, for refurbishing, etc., according to Leo Club president Jozzlynn Lewis.

According to Hope Phones, “Each phone donated is recycled to fund up to 10 new phones for community health workers in 21 countries around the world. Community health workers use the phones to register every pregnancy, track outbreaks faster, monitor essential medicine stock and communicate about emergencies.”