Cell-phone-for-victims effort has outgrown Saratoga store
By Oakley Brooks
What started last fall as a small gesture by Saratoga shop owner Carl Orr to reach out to victims of domestic violence has grown into a mammoth undertaking.
Last October, Orr, who owns Colour Shoppe Draperies & Interiors in the Gateway area, began what he thought might be a month-long effort to collect old cell phones for victims of domestic violence.
As part of a nationwide program sponsored by the Washington, D.C.-based Wireless Foundation, the cell phones are re-programmed to dial only 911 and one or two other key numbers, and given to victims as a safety precaution.
Over the last year, Orr has received large collections from McDonalds, De Anza College, Stanford Hospital and Hewlett-Packard.
And with the help of Don and Judy Coulter, owners of Mail Boxes Etc., on Big Basin Way, he's shipped more than 700 pounds of phones for refurbishment and redistribution.
The Coulters have absorbed the shipping costs, which Judy Coulter estimates at roughly $1 per pound.
"When we heard about it, we just said 'Of course we'll do it,' " said Judy Coulter. "It's a great cause."
In light of the broad participation in the program, Orr said he recently directed large corporations and organizations to begin shipping their own collections of phones. And he would like to find a donor other than the Coulters to pick up further shipping costs of the phones that he's continuing to collect.
"It would be marvelous if someone would come forward to help with that part of it," said Orr.
Once the cell phones are collected, they're shipped to Motorola Inc. in Ann Arbor, Mich., for re-programming.
The partnership between the Wireless Foundation, Motorola and the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence has led to the distribution of 30,000 cell phones to domestic violence victims nationwide. Cell phone carriers provide free airtime for those phones.
The Wireless Foundation estimates that some 30 million cell phones across the country still sit inactive.
For more information about local phone collection, call Orr at 408.996.1223; for information on the national donation program, visit www.wirelessfoundation.org.
Cupertino Courier staff writer George Moore contributed to this report.
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
