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Spring Cleaning Hits Richmond Police Department

Posted on: Friday, 18 April 2008, 09:00 CDT

RICHMOND, Va., April 18 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On Friday, April 18, the Richmond Police Department will clean house as Sergeant Carol Adams and volunteers from Verizon Wireless pack up and ship off more than 1,500 used cell phones for recycling. The phones, which have been stored in an overflowing basement closet at police headquarters on Grace Street, were collected by Adams for the Verizon Wireless HopeLine program, which benefits victims of domestic violence.

During the past year, Adams has amassed her latest cache of cell phones. Adams started collecting phones for the HopeLine program approximately five years ago in memory of her mother, Orine, who died at age 34 in a domestic violence incident in 1980. Since that time, she has collected thousands of cell phones, all of which have been donated to the Verizon Wireless HopeLine program.

Through HopeLine, Verizon Wireless collects previously owned wireless handsets and accessories to be refurbished, recycled and/or sold. Proceeds benefit victims of domestic violence through grants and the donation of wireless phones and service. In memory of Orine Adams, Verizon Wireless contributed $10,000 to the YWCA of Richmond to create a playground for children living at the Y's domestic violence shelter.

Carol Adams didn't set out to be a cell phone collecting machine, but that's exactly what she's become. From Richmond libraries to fire houses to the city's Victim Witness Office, she has organized many city agencies in support of the HopeLine program. Wherever her work takes her, Adams is invariably handed a cell phone or two to bring back to add to her growing stockpile.

On Friday, when Adams packs up her stash, she'll be assisted by a group of local Verizon Wireless employees, HopeLine Helping Hands, volunteering in the recycling effort. Christy Blankenship, Operations Supervisor of Verizon Wireless, wishes more cell phone users would donate to the HopeLine program. "Although 130 million cell phones will be taken out of use this year, fewer than 20 percent of those phones will be recycled," said Blankenship. "With Earth Day right around the corner, it's a perfect time to remind everyone of how easy it is to donate a used cell phone."

Because cell phones and accessories are made from valuable resources, which require energy to extract and manufacture, recycling cell phones leads to significant environmental savings. In addition to keeping valuable materials out of landfills and incinerators, recycling just 1 million cell phones reduces greenhouse gas emissions equal to taking 1,368 cars off the road for a year.

Since 2001, consumers have donated more than 4.5 million phones to HopeLine. In turn, Verizon Wireless has distributed more than $5 million in HopeLine cash grants to domestic violence prevention and awareness programs across the country and provided more than 60,000 phones with airtime and other features. In addition, the program has kept more than 200 tons of electronic waste and batteries out of landfills. Phones are collected at any of the company's 1,300 stores or in special collections like the one organized by Adams. For more information on Verizon Wireless' HopeLine program or for instructions on donating a wireless phone, visit http://www.verizonwireless.com/hopeline.

About Verizon Wireless

Verizon Wireless operates the nation's most reliable wireless voice and data network, serving 65.7 million customers. Headquartered in Basking Ridge, N.J., with 69,000 employees nationwide, Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone (NYSE and LSE: VOD). For more information, go to: http://www.verizonwireless.com/. To preview and request broadcast- quality video footage and high-resolution stills of Verizon Wireless operations, log on to the Verizon Wireless Multimedia Library at http://www.verizonwireless.com/multimedia.

Verizon Wireless

CONTACT: Sherri Cunningham, +1-202-364-5856, or John Johnson,+1-240-568-1429, john.h.johnson@verizonwireless.com, both for VerizonWireless

Web site: http://www.verizonwireless.com/

Source: PRNewswire-USNewswire

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