Helping soldiers is girl's calling
NORWELL, Mass. (AP) -- After hearing about the plight of a soldier who ran up $7,000 in cell phone charges, a 13-year-old Norwell girl decided to help out.
Brittany Bergquist and her brother, Robbie, 12, started Cell Phones for Soldiers, a fund to help American soldiers in Iraq call home without breaking the bank. "They put their lives on the line every day and they deserve a good thing to happen to them once in a while," Brittany told the Patriot Ledger of Quincy.
The plan is to raise money so they can send cell phones along with $25 or $50 calling cards to as many soldiers as possible. They've raised $621 so far. They got the idea after hearing about Army Reserve Sgt. Bryan Fletcher's bill. The homesick Natick native racked up huge bills calling home from Iraq. T-Mobile agreed to forgive $3,000 of the bill. Fletcher, 25, had paid $3,911 for calls made between Nov. 21 and Dec. 19.
The South Shore Savings Bank, where Brittany and her father, Bob, opened an account, chipped in $500 and waived fees, the Ledger reported.
Bob and Gail Bergquist are helping their children by contacting cell phone companies and U.S. military officials to figure out logistics of distributing phones and calling cards, and getting service. They hope to send packages by the end of the summer.
Brittany is working on ways to raise money. She may enlist help from her classmates at Norwell Middle School to organize a yard sale.
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