Two Kids, $21 and a Pile of Old Phones

In 2004, a teenage girl and her 12-year-old brother watched a newscast about an Army Reserve soldier who had run up a $7,600 cell phone bill calling his family from overseas. Brittany and Robbie Bergquist decided to do something about it. The U.S. Army gives their ages at the founding as 13 and 12; NBC News, in December 2004, listed Brittany as 14.

$21 and a Trip to the Bank

According to the U.S. Army, the siblings took $21 to their local bank in the hope of helping pay the soldier's bill. An NBC News report from the time described the money as $14 from their piggy banks plus $7 more from friends.

NBC also reported that the soldier was from Massachusetts, and that T-Mobile later forgave much of his bill. NBC described their father as a science teacher.

The Phones Piling Up at Home

The next idea came from the house itself. The Army account says hundreds of used cell phones were taking up space in the family's garage, den and hallway, and that the idea of recycling them to buy calling cards was born. Phones could not be sent to deployed troops directly because of security issues.

That became Cell Phones for Soldiers, which turns donated phones into international calling cards for deployed service members.

What the Numbers Say Now

The organization's website lists 25 million cell phones and tablets recycled and says more than 3,000 authorized drop-off locations take donations. Its home page reports 450 million minutes provided to deployed service members, while its About page rounds that to 400 million.

Those are the charity's own totals, so the safest reading is "more than 400 million minutes." Even so, the scale is the point: a calling-card fund that began with a handful of dollars and a pile of old phones.

Still Taking Phones

The drop-off network is still running, and the charity's site says it also provides veterans with a free phone and a year of paid phone service.