• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Wireless Phone Collections Earn 'Hero' Honors for the Plymouth County District Attorney's Office

Posted on: Thursday, 3 May 2007, 12:00 CDT

WOBURN, Mass., May 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Verizon Wireless has recognized the Plymouth County District Attorney's Office, led by Timothy B. Cruz, with a 'HopeLine(R) Hero' award for its tremendous support of the Verizon Wireless HopeLine program, designed to support survivors of domestic violence.

The HopeLine program collects no-longer-used wireless phones, batteries and accessories in any condition from any wireless service provider through local phone collection drives and at Communications Stores nationwide. Phones that can be refurbished are sold and those without value are disposed of in an environmentally friendly way. Proceeds are used to provide wireless phones with airtime and cash grants to local shelters and non-profit organizations focused on domestic violence awareness and prevention.

For the past two years, the Plymouth County District Attorney's office has coordinated a cross-county collection effort netting nearly 5,000 wireless phones, batteries and accessories for recycling through HopeLine. In addition, Tamara Spinney, coordinator of the domestic violence program in the District Attorney's office, has raised awareness across the south shore on how phone donations can provide valuable communications tools, financial resources and support to domestic violence organizations and survivors.

"The HopeLine Program is effective due to strong support from our local communities and leaders," said Ken Dixon, New England Region president, Verizon Wireless. "Realizing it takes time and energy to organize phone drives, we created the HopeLine Hero award to express our gratitude to organizations like the Plymouth County District Attorney's Office, that go above and beyond to support survivors and raise awareness of this issue."

"We're proud to receive the HopeLine Hero award from Verizon Wireless," said Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz. "Our team has long been involved with the domestic violence cause and all avenues in support of survivors are given our time and attention. HopeLine is one such avenue."

Throughout 2006, wireless customers in New England donated more than 60,000 no-longer-used wireless phones to Verizon Wireless' HopeLine phone recycling program to support domestic violence prevention and awareness programs. As a result of these donations, more than $80,000, and 500 wireless phones, with airtime and other features were donated to 50 local agencies throughout New England last year.

Past recipients of the HopeLine Hero award in New England include Braintree Recycling (Mass), the Boston Police Department, Community Systems, Inc.'s Community Experience Program (Conn.), General Electric, HP, and MultiPlan -- formerly Private Healthcare Systems(Mass.).

For more information on Verizon Wireless' HopeLine program and on how to donate 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 more than 60.7 million customers. The largest US wireless company and largest wireless data provider, based on revenues, Verizon Wireless is headquartered in Basking Ridge, N.J., with 66,000 employees nationwide. The company is a joint venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone (NYSE and LSE: VOD). Find more information on the Web at 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: Michael Murphy, +1-781-932-1213, or Wendy Bulawa,+1-617-851-3426, both of Verizon Wireless

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

Source: PRNewswire

More News in this Category