Phone Home aims to help soldiers

Winston-Salem State University, in conjunction with the American Red Cross, has found a way to let American soldiers in Iraq know that they are being cared about at home.It’s called Operation Phone Home.Operation Phone Home is a service project spearheaded by the American Red Cross that calls for volunteers to raise money in order to buy deployed U.S. soldiers phone cards to contact loved ones. Until the international telephone services are reconnected and satellite communication calling is re-established overseas, calling cards are imperative to the soldiers.”The idea was started by the Greater Carolina Chapter of the American Red Cross in Charlotte, ” said Stephanie Carter, director of financial development at the Red Cross office in Winston-Salem off Coliseum Drive.”It became so popular that they decided they wanted to offer it in the Southwest regions which made an opportunity to link us [the different chapters] together.”According to Carter, Operation Phone Home kicked off about March 17.”It really started moving fast when the war became a very real possibility, right when the declaration of war was made,” said Carter.Corporate sponsors such as Harris Teeter and the Charlotte NBC affiliate were the first to join Operation Phone Home with the Red Cross. Locally Forsyth County schools, Wachovia bank, CCB bank, WSSU and many other community organizations have joined the operation’s team.”When I talked to some people at the American Red Cross, we tried to determine a project that would allow the university to aid the deployed troops,” said Willard Tanner of Career Services. “We identified that as the project we’d work on.”Tanner, who worked in Counseling Services before moving to Career Services, recognized student concern about the war months ago.”There were students who were concerned about the war even before it started. Many were students who were going to be deployed. Many have loved ones and friends who are involved [with the war],” said Tanner.Tanner believes that Operation Phone Home will be a mechanism to reach out to Rams overseas.”What we’re hoping to happen is to reach out to many of the students who were deployed while in school,” said Tanner.According to Carter, the phone cards are ordered in batches of 5,000 with the money raised by the various organizations. Each card holds an average of 50-90 minutes of talk time, but there are some stipulations.”The talk time may vary depending on the country [the soldier is calling from] and the time of day that they’re calling.”Carter said the first batch of 5,000 was sent out to Kuwait City recently, but there is no way to tell exactly when the soldiers will receive their cards.”It depends on the military’s mail system. The cards will be sent to the Red Cross offices overseas and then distributed to the soldiers,” said Carter.According to Tanner, an official ceremony will be planned to present the money that WSSU collects in the form of one check to the American Red Cross toward the end of the school year.”Once the money has been collected, the American Red Cross will send the phone cards to the service men and women on our behalf. We’d also like to send letters along with phone cards to personalize them.”Tanner said that as of April 2, there weren’t any student organizations who’d volunteered to collect money for the operation, but several faculty and staff made donations.Carter said there hasn’t been a termination date set for Operation Phone Home.