Tax company hopes to drum up used cell phones for soldiers

Dustin Brown knows the plight of soldiers in Iraq trying to call home.

He’s had family there for months – an uncle who’s still there and two cousins who just returned – and each racked up dizzying phone bills calling back home to talk to family, he said.

“For them to call is quite a substantial amount,” he said. “Three thousand dollars a month for phone bill fees? It’s crazy.”

So when his Liberty Tax franchise, 810 W. 23rd St., became a part of a nationwide movement to collect used cell phones to pay for troops’ calling cards, he jumped at the chance to pitch in.

Starting this weekend, the store will begin collecting used cell phones, packing them into a star-spangled Hummer called the “Libertymobile.”

Drop-off will start at 11 a.m. Saturday, Brown said, hoping that he can collect the equivalent of 5,000 minutes for a national charity organization to put on troops’ phone cards.

Liberty Tax Employees Betsy Copeland, dressed as Lady Liberty, and Trey Powell, dressed as Uncle Sam, try to attract passing motorists to the tax business on 23rd Street. The business is looking for customers who need their taxes done and others who would like to donate their used cell phones to a charity that helps soldiers overseas call home.

Cell Phones for Soldiers, a Massachusetts-based nonprofit corporation, organized the phone drive. The company was formed in 2004 after Robbie and Brittany Bergquist, both children, saw a story on the news about a soldier struggling to pay a $7,000 phone bill, older sister Courtney Bergquist said.

After collecting their piggy-bank savings and receiving support from a local bank, the family started the charity with the idea that old cell phones, worth money to recycling companies, could be transformed into cash for soldier’s calls home.

Bergquist said they typically get between $4 and $100 per cell phone, depending on the model.

The money then goes into a bank account, where the family can access it to convert the funds to calling cards. Since its inception, the company has placed more than 250,000 minutes on phone cards, according to the company.

Bergquist said the company doesn’t have an agreement with the military, so soldiers’ families can access calling cards by signing up for them on the nonprofit’s Web site, www.cellphonesforsoldiers.com.

Recently, the family restricted who they would send cards to. Now, only applicants with an Army Post Office address can get the cards.

“We were getting worried that we were sending cards to people who didn’t need them,” Bergquist said.

The company collects phones from drop-off stations across the country. Liberty Tax, a nationwide franchise, is one of their primary drop-off locations.

On Wednesday in his quiet office, Brown prepared for the start of two seasons, the tax season and the phone-collection season, which he will end in February.

Until then, he hopes the old phones come in, filling the floor and seats of the Libertymobile, buying more minutes so troops can talk to their husbands, wives, parents and children.

“This is something that’s very dear to a lot of us,” he said.