Two students collect 1,500 cellphones for U.S. soldiers in Iraq

Two ninth-graders from Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles initially chose the charity Cell Phones for Soldiers to fulfill a community service requirement. That's before they knew soldiers in Iraq have to pay to call home.

“Once we realized that, we decided to continue collecting as many phones as we possibly could,” student Andrew Green said in a statement.

Green and Connor Donahue continued collecting long after their volunteer hours had been met. They turned over 1,500 cellphones this week to representatives from the U.S. Army and UCLA's Army ROTC Battalion during a ceremony at their school. The donation was the largest the charity has received, officials said.

“The record was secondary, but it’s fun to know that with our 1,512 phones, we surpassed other schools and organizations,” Green said.

Each phone is converted into a calling card that gives soldiers one hour of calling time.

-- Raja Abdulrahim