Cellcom has selected three Shawano County nonprofits to receive a share of its annual Green Gifts, which invests money from recycled cell phones back into environmental projects.
Shawano Community Middle School will use its $1,000 Green Gift from Cellcom to support a trip to Trees for Tomorrow for a group of 140 seventh grade students. Trees for Tomorrow allows students to immerse themselves in environmental science and provides hands-on activities with forestry, animal ecology, water resources and more.
Friends of Shawano County Mountain Bay Trail maintains, promotes and sustains the Mountain Bay Trail. The city of Shawano has donated the use of a portion of its original train depot for a trail information center. A $700 Green Gift from Cellcom will be used to incorporate native plants outside the trail information center, which is slated for opening in spring 2024.
Navarino Nature Center was awarded a $600 Green Gift from Cellcom to support its summer day camps. These camps are a way to help young children explore nature and learn about the outdoors outside of a classroom setting using their imagination and getting their hands dirty. Parents and grandparents are allowed to stay and participate with their child at our summer camps, creating a generational bridge and connection to share stories and pass on their love of the outdoors.
A total of 26 organizations received a share of the $23,000 in Green Gifts from Cellcom this year. The Green Gifts program uses funds generated from Cellcom’s cell phone recycling program to fund green nonprofit initiatives. Customers and community members can bring in their old or unwanted phones to be reused and recycled. Cellcom sends the phones to recyclers who in return send money to Cellcom for the materials that were saved from the phones. Cellcom’s Green Gift program completes the green cycle that starts with consumers being environmentally conscious and donating their devices.
“Cellcom is focused on reducing our negative impact on the environment and investing in projects in our communities that do the same,” said Mick O’Malley, director of sustainability at Cellcom. “From preserving and enhancing natural areas to providing educational programming to spearheading sustainability and research efforts, this year’s Green Gift recipients are leading the way for environmental causes locally.”
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