Who in Montréal would take cellphones for charity?

May 10, 2006 3:39 PM

Giving celphones to charity in Montréal? I've heard of women's shelters accepting and/or refurbishing celphones so that battered wives can call for help.

I've gone through a few celphones, mostly because of the provider lock-in with each phone, and repeated dissatisfaction with providers over the years. My motivation is irrelevant.

I've got a Telus phone and a Bell pager, and also a Fido GSM phone with wonky address-book software. Nobody outside of collectors would buy them from me, but if someone wanted to use them as mere phones they're fine.

Who in Montréal would redistribute this phone equipment in a charitable and philanthropic manner?

posted by Mozai to grab bag (4 comments total)

You can take them to any Body Shop and they should have drop off boxes for the phones. From the Body Shop Canada web site:

What we’re doing,
In Canada, for the past decade we have focused our human rights campaigning on the issue of STOP Violence Against Women. working to educate ourselves and our customers, raise funds and volunteer hours to support violence recovery and prevention programs, and ensure that “Women’s Rights Are Human Rights” becomes a reality at home and around the world. In 2005. based on the success of our national campaign which was awarded a prize of recognition by the United Nations, The Body Shops Americas (Mexico, USA and Canada) are unting in the Stop Violence in the Home campaign.

Looks like they have a couple stores in Montreal. You can get the details at the site.
posted by Otis at 4:14 PM on May 10, 2006

The Body Shop website is heavy with frames, but I did find the small sub-frame that talks about mobile phone collection.

"During the month of August 2005, we collected 7,000 used cell phones in all 114 locations of The Body Shop. ... Our objective is to collect 10,000 phones."

This seems very much like the meme I was exposed to, but it also seems that I missed the boat.
posted by Mozai at 9:08 AM on May 11, 2006

...one phone call later, and the Body Shop isn't doing it anymore.
posted by Mozai at 9:10 AM on May 11, 2006

Sorry to have steered you wrong. Maybe try here?

Your donated cell phones will be quickly used to provide 911 emergency communication at battered women's shelters and senior citizen facilities. Some phones may be refurbished and re-deployed in areas of the world where the cost of a new cell phone is prohibitive or, there are no land lines. Many phones that are obsolete will have to be destroyed by Charitable Recycling, in an environmentally-responsible manner.

Drop off locations in Montréal:

VALUE VILLAGE STORES

Store #2012 Montreal
4906 W. Jean Talon St.
Montreal QC H4P 1W9

Store #2015 Pie IX
2033 Pie IX
Montreal QC H1V 9Z7

Store #2021 St. Leonard
6779 Jean Talon E.
Montreal QC H1S 1N2
posted by Otis at 11:37 AM on May 11, 2006