Winery From Chile Donates Money For Calls Home
Many people donate to support our Troops at holiday times, but most of the funds come from our citizens here in the United States.
Recently, a business began in Chile decided to take the plunge, and has gathered a large amount to support phone communications between Soldiers and Service Members serving in Iraq and family back home.
Santa Rita Wines, who began in Chile, and their U.S. distributors are gathering together funds to fund Cell Phones For Soldiers, a program designed to send phone cards to overseas Service members and help them talk to loved ones at home.
The Cell Phones program is a part of the larger America Supports You program.
Michael Preis is a director for one of the Distributors for Santa Rita Wines. “We have three parts to our program, the first is a cash donation element†said Preis. Preis presented the program founders, Robbie and Brittany Bergquist with a large Twenty Five thousand dollar check from Santa Rita Winery on Veteran’s Day in November.
Over Two thousand Five hundred drop boxes have been placed at stores and retailers here in the United States where Santa Rita customers can drop off cell phones. By donating their used and unwanted cell phones, they are collected and recycled, and the money is further used to buy more pre-paid phone cards for Service Members to use to call home.
“We do not just have drop boxes for cell phones, but we put out five hundred thousand Neckers tags that go on our bottles of wine. The tags give information about our donation program and also how the public can give or donate directly,†stated Preis.
