Helping Soldiers Phone Home

When two Massachusetts siblings read about a soldier in Iraq who couldn't afford to keep in touch with his loved ones back home, they decided to start a fund to pay for his cell phone bill.

Since they started Cell Phones For Soldiers nine months ago, 14-year-old Brittany Bergquist and her 12-year-old brother, Robbie, have raised over $250,000. With their father, Bob Bergquist, the siblings spoke to The Early Show's Gretchen Carlson from Orlando, Fla.

(They were in Orlando visiting Disney World, courtesy of Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly, who is the spokesperson for Cell Phones For Soldiers. The kids explained that Kelly thought they had done such a great thing by organizing the group that he treated them to the trip.)

Cell Phones For Soldiers was born when the Bergquist siblings learned of a solder in Iraq who had a $7,600 cell phone bill.

Recalls Brittany, "When we heard about him with his huge cell phone bill, we really felt horrible about what he had to go through to pay it off. And so we decided to help him out right away. But then his bill was waived by his phone company, and so we did some research, and we found he wasn't the only soldier struggling to call home. There were thousands of others that were, too. So we set out to help them."

Robbie started things off by donating the money out of his piggy bank. He says, "We heard about the story, and we immediately ran up to our rooms, not thinking about anything else; just, just how we could help them out? And…we had a million things running through our heads, and we ran upstairs and got all of the money we had and brought it down and put it on the table."

Since then, they have raised $250,000, helping thousands of soldiers to keep in touch with their loved ones.

Carlson asked Bob Bergquist how it feels to be the father of the organization's founders.

"It's fantastic," he says. "I still get goose bumps when I think about what they're doing. They are tremendous kids, and they have a drive that I have seldom seen in kids their age."

In addition to their trip to Disney World, the Bergquist kids are being rewarded in other ways. The Massachusetts governor declared last Nov. 16 Brittany and Robbie Day, and Brittany is being featured in Teen People magazine as one of 15 regular teens who will change the world.