New York - August 16, 2000

The Mobile-Phone Blues

Donate Old Cell Phones to Charity

You’re standing in the elevator.

Your mobile phone rings.

You grope in your pocket, and all heads turn.

“Hello?” you answer sheepishly.

And then everyone really starts staring. Your phone. It is just so last year.

It’s the curse of the wireless. The minute you upgrade, you’re dated.

All right, out with it. For all those old, disconnected cell phones you have stuffed away in a drawer because you either switched services or upgraded to a smaller, swishier model…

Allay your guilt! Send your old phones to Call to Protect, a national program whose goal is to collect one million wireless phones to benefit victims of domestic violence. Call to Protect places old cell phones with battered women, and they act as a lifeline. It’s a free service, and all the airtime is donated by local wireless carriers.

All you have to do is lick a stamp, send it off, and that’s it.