Giving Back: Brittany Bergquist of Cell Phones for Soldiers
CAUSE: Calling home from abroad is an expense that many United States military personnel cannot afford, and Brittany Bergquist believes that staying in touch with family should not be an inaccessible luxury. With her brother, she started the non-profit organization Cell Phones for Soldiers to provide free pre-paid calling cards to those serving overseas.
**EFFECT: ** Since 2004, Brittany and her brother have provided more than 150 million minutes of free talk time to deployed military members and raised more than $7 million.
GET INVOLVED: Cell Phones for Soldiers just launched a new initiative called Helping Heroes Home. AT&T is jumpstarting the initiative with a $450,000 grant, and will also donate $2 (up to $50,000) each time a viewer watches the video on Causes.com. Click to make a difference!
1/5This 21-year-old college student is making it cost-free for deployed troops to call their families.
Photo of Brittany and military personnel courtesy of Cell Phones for Soldiers2/5"When I was thirteen years old in April of 2004, my twelve-year-old brother and I were motivated to start Cell Phones For Soldiers after we read a story about a soldier who had to pay almost $8,000 for calling his family from overseas. He was a local guy, and it was the first time we had ever heard that the troops had to pay for their own phone calls to their families. We have a few cousins who are active in the military, and it hit home for us. We tried to imagine what it would be like to not be able to speak with our family, and it was a scary realization. Our main goal is to make sure no one has to go through that."
Photo of Brittany and a soldier courtesy of Cell Phones for Soldiers3/5"The first step to starting the program was that my brother and I collected all the money we had in our piggy banks. From that first $14, we got $7 from our friends, and went from there. Now, the main way to raise funds for the organization is to recycle used cell phones. We have drop-off sites across the country that collect used cell phones, and then they are packaged and sent to a recycling company in Michigan. The company gives us money for those phones—they refurbish them and sell the parts. We get about $3 per use cell phone, and we use that money to purchase and send calling cards to the troops."
Photo of Brittany at a fundraising event courtesy of Cell Phones for Soldiers4/5"One of our biggest challenges was believing in ourselves and trusting that we were capable of helping these troops. These are heroes, and we wanted to make the biggest impact possible. We were pretty nervous that, as teens, we weren't going to be taken seriously. Our parents and initial supporters made us realize that it didn't matter what age we were; we were capable of making a difference. If you have drive and motivation, people will see passion in you and want to help you."
Photo of Brittany and her brother courtesy of Cell Phones for Soldiers5/5"We've gotten pretty unbelievable responses. We've even had a soldier call us from Afghanistan—we got a phone call at three in the morning just to tell us that he had our calling card and he wanted to personally thank us. We've received a lot of emails from troops and families saying that this has made deployment so much easier."
