Discarded cellphones to be emergency links to 911
Most, if not all, of the pile of cellphones piling up in a barrel at the Butler Area Public Library no longer have service, but they can still connect a caller to 911 when dialed.
The phones in that barrel will be transferred to Secure the Call, a nonprofit based in Takoma Park, Md., which will distribute the phones to people who are “electronically isolated.”
Neal Holtz, head volunteer for Secure the Call, said the phones are given to the nonprofit’s partner agencies, which include police departments, shelters and senior centers. Those agencies get the phones to people who may need to dial 911 in an emergency, he said.
“That's federal law, that all network carriers allow any phone to dial 911 and reach the local operator,” Holtz said. “It's a very simple program, and it's helpful for people who desperately need these phones.”
Sue Evans, a member of the General Federation of Women's Clubs (GFWC) Intermediate League of Butler, said she brought Secure the Call to the region on behalf of the intermediate league. She said the national GFWC organization endorsed the initiative.
Evans, who is also administrative and program assistant at the Butler YWCA, helped start the program last January, placing a collection barrel in the Butler YMCA. That barrel had to be emptied twice in the two months it was in the YMCA’s lobby — January to February 2023 — collecting 148 phones.
In addition to the initiative helping people with safety, Holtz said it was also born out of a concern for the environment, and discarded cellphones’ effect on it. The program is another way of recycling cellphones, Holtz said.
“I just think it's a great way to, number one, get rid of a cellphone that's just going to sit around in your drawers,” Evans said, “and number two get them to someone who may need it.“
Dianne McCauley, adult program coordinator at the library, said the barrel has been in the lobby of the library since November, where it will stay until the end of January.
“They distribute it to victims of domestic violence to people who need a secret phone or don't have a phone,” McCauley said.
Holtz said the phones that reach Secure the Call are cleaned by volunteers, who make sure the phones work before sending them off to people in need via partner agencies. Holtz said phones donated in particular regions could make their ways back to the same region.
“We have to go through the phones, power them up, test them, clean them, factory reset them, get all the information from the previous owner wiped out,” Holtz said. “We always try to get phones back to local communities if possible.”
Evans said she hopes to see the donated phones distributed through Butler County locales like the Victims’ Outreach Intervention Center (VOICe) or the Butler County Area Agency on Aging, so people in need have emergency access to 911.
“We have domestic violence situations, and it's not just your typical domestic violence. It can be elder abuse, where they do not have a cellphone they could call for help with,” Evans said. “If they have something hidden away, he or she would have access to call for help.”
