Montgomery students launch ‘Cell Phones for Soldiers’ drive

By Greg Forester, Staff Writer
   MONTGOMERY — U.S. servicemen and women stationed abroad will be the recipients of free, pre-paid callings cards for use in keeping in touch with family and friends back home, thanks to the efforts of two Montgomery public school students.
   Kendra and Parker Lyons of Mountain View Road have begun a cell phone collection drive as they take part in Cell Phones for Soldiers. The nonprofit organization gathers used cell phones, which go to ReCellular, a Michigan-based cell phone recycling company.
   ReCellular sorts the phones, refurbishes them for resale, and then sells the phones, with the proceeds going to fund the purchase hundreds of thousands of the pre-paid cards for distribution to military stationed overseas.
   So far Cell Phones for Soldiers has collected over 2 million cell phones and used the proceeds to get over $1 million worth of prepaid calling cards into the hands of American soldiers in foreign lands, according to Angela Beaubien, a ReCellular spokeswoman.
   Members of the Lyons family, who only got involved a few weeks ago, have collected 17 cell phones already without really getting collection efforts under way, according to Tammy Lyons, Kendra and Parker’s mother.
   Kendra, a Montgomery High School junior and varsity cheerleader, discovered the program and the family decided to get involved, according to her mother.
   ”We actually saw it on a television news program and my daughter saw it and said that’s really a neat program,” said Ms. Lyons, whose brother-in-law is in the Air Force, stationed abroad. “It touches everyone’s lives.”
   Parker, an eighth-grader at Montgomery Upper Middle School, is also helping with the collection effort as a service to the community.
   With the kickoff of the cell phone drive, the Lyons family is asking people in the Princeton and Montgomery area to drop off old or unused phones at their at 94 Mountain View Road home.
   Other opportunities for collecting cell phones will present themselves at Montgomery High School sporting events, according to Ms. Lyons, who is the co-president of Montgomery High’s cheerleader booster club.
   She said the high school’s cheerleading squad has decided to adopt the program as its official community service project this year.
   ”What they’re going to do is reach out to different sports teams,” said Ms. Lyons, with collection efforts likely at football, soccer, and other fall sporting events at the high school during a yet-to-be picked week in October.
   The Lyons family is welcoming participation from other organizations in the greater Princeton area, as they prepare to get into the full swing of collection efforts this fall, according to Ms. Lyons.
   Two Massachusetts children founded Cell Phones for Soldiers in 2004 and the program has since grown to massive proportions.
   The nonprofit is actually the official charity of AT&T, and counts other large U.S. corporations among its participants, according to Angela Beaubien, a ReCellular representative.