Craig Plumbing and Air in Lake Havasu City, Ariz., donated 17 new Nextel phones to Help End Abuse for Life (HEAL). Heal will give the phones, on an as-needed-basis, to residents of the Nest, a domestic violence shelter.
More than 90 percent of Americans use cell phones as a primary means of communication and rely on their phones to keep up with busy schedules, store phone numbers, take pictures or provide turn-by-turn navigation instructions in a big city. Some people have even used a cell phone to save a life, and in one case, a preschooler saved his mom’s life.
A woman and her two young sons lived in a volatile and abusive home. A domestic violence abuse counselor provided the woman with an emergency-only cell phone, which turned out to be the weapon that saved her life.
She hid the phone under a bed and gave her boys specific instructions on how to use the phone and where it was. Only three days later, her abuser came home and was set off when he noticed no one had left the porch light on for him. The beating began. The four-year-old boy ran to the hiding place and called 911. When the police arrived, the woman was near death and both boys were hiding under the bed with the phone.
It is stories like this that motivate people to donate items, like phones, to the Nest. Marlene Singer, the financial controller at Craig Plumbing, recently had a surplus of phones. The company, with 25 employees, uses Nextel/Sprint phones to communicate in the field.
As part of the service plan, Nextel provided the company with new phones, but the new phones didn’t have good reception inside the company’s metal building. So, Nextel replaced the new phones with a different model, but allowed them to keep the other phones, Singer said.
For a few weeks the phones sat in a box in the corner of her office, said Singer, who is a friend of Coleen Widell, HEAL executive director.
Singer, who grew up in Pittsburgh, Penn., met Widell when both were living in Lake Havasu City. Both women have a passion for public service and found themselves working together on various charitable and political projects in Arizona. They had worked on a project to save the local domestic violence safe house. Singer, who is a domestic violence survivor, and Widell, who now lives in Ruidoso, have been friends ever since.
“While packing up for a girls’ weekend get-away to Ruidoso, I thought that Coleen would know how to put the phones to good use,” Singer said. “It was not a well-thought out charity project. Instead it was a thought of ‘oh by the way – I still have these phones’ and it just happened. I knew Coleen, at the Nest, could make something out of our phones. I welcome the opportunity to offer a little bit of help to empower another woman.”
The owners of Craig Plumbing, Darin and Cathy Craig, are active in their community and are charitable-minded, Singer said. They agreed that donating the phones could be a life saver for a victim of domestic violence.
The Nest staff appreciates the kindness of people and businesses that make it possible for women to transition and integrate back to a normal life.
“These phones will serve as a vital link to emergency or support services for victims who leave the shelter,” Widell said. “They are also a connection to employers, family and friends which is critical for survivors who are rebuilding their lives.”
The Nest, a 28-bed shelter, provides a safe haven to empower families to break the cycle of domestic violence. Professionally-trained Advocates are available around the clock, and all services are free and confidential. Statistically, the shelter has helped over 1,200 women and children since it opened its doors in 2007.
“All of the women and children who have come to the Nest have been blessed by the generosity of the local community and our many HEAL friends across the country,” Widell said. “The Craig Plumbing family and my friend, Marlene Singer, are heroes who continue to make a difference in their community and in ours.”
Pictured are Marlene Singer & Darin Craig of Craig Plumbing.
To learn more about how you can help, find HEAL and the Nest on Facebook and “like” the page.