Helping Troops Call Home: Meet Eagle Scout Jack Stouffer
Just like Brittany and Robbie Bergquist were inspired to found "Cell Phones for Soldiers" at a young age, another teenager is making a difference to help deployed troops call home.
Meet Jack Stouffer.
Jack Stouffer, a 2013 Notre Dame Prep grad from Holly, Mich., wants to become an Eagle Scout before his 18th birthday. Like all Eagle Scouts, he had to complete a service project to earn his badge. Jack chose to focus his efforts on helping Cell Phones for Soldiers. His mom, Linda, made him aware of the efforts of Cell Phones for Soldiers, as she works closely with the charity through her position at General Motors.
As part of his Eagle Scout project, he collected phones at church, General Motors, Ford, his high school and enlisted the scouts and scout parents to collect at their churches and places of business. He collected 1,037 cell phones.
“I chose to help Cell Phones for Soldiers for two reasons," Jack said. "First, there was a need that wasn’t being fulfilled. Secondly, collecting cell phones was a unique opportunity. Helping Cell Phones for Soldiers allowed me to work in an untapped area. There are companies with boxes of unopened and never used cell phones. They were literally collecting dust sitting in the IT department or in a closet, and they were likely going to end up in a landfill. I wanted to make sure those went to a good cause.”
The profits from these phones will go towards purchasing international calling cards which will be distributed to deployed troops overseas. For every phone worth five dollars, two and a half hours of talk time can be purchased.
Through the process of collecting more than 1,000 phones and working with various people, Jack said, “I learned a lot about project management, communication skills and working together with a bunch of different people. It was great trying to work with lots of entities to reach a common goal, which was collecting cell phones.”
He learned valuable lessons that “I would tell others don’t be afraid to knock on company doors. Many companies have old or unused phones sitting in their IT departments. And if those don’t exist, there are many people who have held on to an old phone thinking they might need it in the future.”
Though he’s only 18, Jack will take those lessons learned and skills developed with him to Oakland University in the fall.
About Cell Phones for Soldiers
Cell Phones for Soldiers was founded by Robbie and Brittany Bergquist of Norwell, Mass., at the ages of 12 and 13. The organization has prevented more than 10.8 million cell phones from ending up in landfills.
Follow Notre Dame at @NDPMA.
About Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy
Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy is a private, Catholic, independent, coeducational day school located in Oakland County. The school's upper division enrolls students in grades nine through twelve and has been named one of the nation's best 50 Catholic high schools (Acton Institute) four times since 2005. Notre Dame's middle and lower divisions enroll students in jr. kindergarten through grade eight. All three divisions are International Baccalaureate "World Schools." NDPMA is conducted by the Marist Fathers and Brothers and is accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Central States and the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement. For more on Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy, visit the school's home page at www.ndpma.org.
