Super Heroes: Brittany and Robbie Bergquist

Recent survey shows 69 percent of kids age 6-17 want to have a cell phone. It is the parent's dilemma of this century. We want to be able to reach our children when they are away from us and we want them to be able to reach us in an emergency. The cell phone seems like the perfect solution. However, giving a child their own cell phone comes with a plethora of possible problems from safety to responsibility.

Here are 5 Tips For Managing Your Child's Cell Phone Use and Avoiding Potential Problems.

1. Before the cell phone is purchased you and your child need to agree to some ground rules. What they are, are up to you as the parent, but here are 5 good suggestions that I used with my own children.

1. Keep the Cell Phone On You. It won't do any good for your child to have a cell phone if they lose it. So my first suggestion is that you get a good cell phone holder that hangs around their neck, clips to their backpack or jacket, or ties onto their belt.

2. The main use of a cell phone is for emergency - not social communications. Cell phones these days can come equipped with some great features for child safety. The first is GPS. It gives a parent great peace of mind to be able to now where their child is at any moment.

3. If in doubt - call home. There are now parental controls that let you restrict the numbers the phone can dial and receive. You can also limit the hours of the day and days of the week the phone can be used. I program in only the numbers I want my kids to call and receive.

4. Parents must OK any addition to address book. Of course kids want to text message their friends. Getting a plan that allows unlimited text messaging saves money and allow the kids access to their friends. But there are predators and bullies out there and so my kids and I must agree on their contacts.

5. My children, no matter how young, must work for their cell phone bill. I may have the little one put the dishes in the dishwasher and the older one to mow the lawn or use money from babysitting. They have to contribute or the cell phone goes away.

Hopefully, these 5 tips will help you manage your kid's cell phone usage and keep things safe and happy at your home. A great cell phone just for kids can be found at KAJEET.

When these two Massachusetts siblings read about a soldier in Iraq who couldn't afford to keep in touch with loved ones back home, they decided to start a fund to pay his cell phone bill.

"While he was in Iraq, he worked up a $7,624 cell phone bill," says Brittany.

"When we heard about that, we felt so bad, we ran upstairs and got the money we had saved up and brought it to our parents and told them we had to send this to Brian to help him pay his bill, because we thought it was another thing that he had to worry about. And he didn't have to deal with that type of stress."

With that small start, these two have managed to start a nonprofit corporation that has collected at least 1.4 million dollars worth of old cell phones which they sell to a company in exchange for cell phone cards to send to our soldiers - whenever they are away from their home.

A simple idea - but one that makes these two kids, my heroes.

Dear Brittany & Robbie Bergquist,

Hi, my name is Terry Corder, a Sergeant First Class in the US Army currently stationed in Camp Taji Iraq. Yesterday I received a Christmas stocking and part of the contents was a calling card from you. I first of all want to say thank you, the card will be put to good use calling my wife and three children back in Germany. Secondly, I was reading your story on the back of the card, I read it once, then I read it a second time and started to cry because of how you two donated your piggy bank money and snack money from your friends at school, to start Cell Phones for Soldiers. If I had your address I would send you two $21.00, to replace your money that you donated to start such a grateful program. I can tell you that the soldiers here are grateful to receive gifts from the states no matter what it may be. I know that you all probably get letters of thanks from service members deployed over here, just wanted to send mine. Again thank you for what you have done.

TERRY S. CORDER

Senior Human Resources Sergeant

FIRES Sqdn, 2d SCR

Camp Taji, Iraq

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You can simply go to the Cell Phones For Soldiers website and find a drop off point near you or you can donate cash or you can buy flowers.

Flowers?

Yes.

Cell Phones for Soldiers recently collaborated with Rosemont Floral in the Touching Hearts Fundraising Partnership to raise money for phone cards to help troops abroad call home.

When you use Rosemont Floral for flower orders over $25.00, a contribution of $3.00 will be go directly towards Cell Phones for Soldiers.

Orders can be placed for across town or across the country. Just mention the Touching Hearts ID: SOLDIERS and Rosemont Floral will take care of the rest.

If you order online, simply enter SOLDIERS into the comments field. Share the Touching Hearts Fundraising Partnership information with friends and family and help Rosemont Floral raise funds and awareness about this much need service.

Don't forget to send flowers to all those Dads n'Grads in your life!

www.rosemontfloral.com

If you are a business or organization, you can apply to be a local drop off point for old cell phones. Go to the website for Cell Phones For Soldiers to apply.

WHen you have been accepted you can download flyers for your windows, set up a bin, bucket or basket, send out a press release and watch the cell phones come rolling in. When you have a full box you can send them in and start again.

The cell phones are sold to a company that recycles them. The money that they get for the phones is used to purchase calling cards that are sent to our soldiers serving.

Heroes come in many sizes and shapes, but the one thing they have in common is that they put someone else before themselves.

Brittany and Robbie thought of others first - for that, they are heroes - AND role models...not just for children, but for all of us.

They have received many awards for their creative idea and great follow through - which I also attribute to great parents. I'm sure they had no idea where their idea would lead, but their parents supported them in their efforts and hats off to them also.

Their project just keeps growing, but we all wait for a time when it will not be necessary. When our troops can come home and speak with us face to face. Until that time...Brittany and Robbie - keep up the good work!

Brittany Bergquist <cellphonesforsoldiers@yahoo.com>
Aug 17

Hi~
If I didn't respond before, I just want to say thank you for sharing our story on Squidoo!!
It really helps to spread the word about Cell Phones for Soldiers.
Sincerely,
Brittany

Cell Phones for Soldiers
243 Winter Street
Norwell, MA 02061
781-659-7789 Home
cellphonesforsoldiers@yahoo.com
www.cellphonesforsoldiers.com