National Service Sorority Donates Nearly 600 Old Cell Phones To Verizon Wireless’ HopeLine® Program To Help Domestic Violence Survivors And Mother Earth

Jasmine Bellamy, president of the Westchester County, N.Y., chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha, the nation’s oldest African-American service sorority, met with fellow sorority member Eileen Lambert, Verizon Wireless associate director of human resources, last week to present some of the nearly 600 no-longer-used wireless phones collected at the sorority’s regional conference in New York City last month. The phones were donated to the Verizon Wireless HopeLine® phone recycling program, which collects old cell phones, batteries and accessories at Verizon Wireless Communications Stores in the New York Metro area and across the country. The phones are refurbished, recycled or sold and the proceeds donated to domestic violence advocacy groups in the form of cash grants and prepaid wireless phones for survivors. Since 2001, HopeLine has donated nearly 80,000 phones with nearly 230 million minutes of airtime and awarded more than $6.3 million in cash grants.

Phones that cannot be refurbished are disposed of in an environmentally friendly manner. Through HopeLine’s efforts, more than 200 tons of electronic waste and batteries have been kept out of landfills. For more information visit www.verizonwireless.com/hopeline