(left fo right) Jaime Szyarto and Uchenna Duru

Since 2000, Rider University Community Scholars (RCS) have been making a difference in the community both on and off campus. Whether it’s raising awareness about the plight of the homeless, volunteering at community agencies, coordinating activities for Rider SERVES (a freshman community service initiative), or organizing Rider’s World AIDs Day observance, their mission is to help those in need.

Their latest crusade is a cell phone collection drive/fundraiser on the Lawrenceville and Westminster campuses. Members of the campus community are being asked to drop off used cell phones and related accessories in designated boxes at residence halls, as well as academic and administrative buildings throughout the 2007-2008 academic year. Community Scholars will donate all phones and accessories to ECO-CELL, a national grass roots organization, which will in turn refurbish and distribute them to urban hospitals where they will be used as emergency 911 cell phones. Everyone seems to have at least one old cell phone lying around. Here’s a way to put it to good use.

“ECO-CELL is the premiere cell phone recycling program for a society that is growing more environmentally conscious,” said Uchenna Duru, a senior human resource management major and ECO-CELL project coordinator at Rider. “We hope everyone will support us on this important mission.”

Duru and Jaime Szyarto, a freshman general liberal studies student, are among the 40 Community Scholars who perform 300 hours of service at various community agencies during the academic year. “I would not have it any other way – it’s an honor to be able to call myself a Rider Community Scholar because it allows me to make a difference each and every day, whether it is with one individual or our entire community,” said Szyarto.

As part of the drive, Rider Community Scholars are also accepting monetary donations to help defray the expense of their trip to Central America next May. While there, they will run an education enrichment camp for children. The Scholars will be collecting donations for the trip while promoting the cell phone drive at local churches, schools, businesses and community organizations.

For more information about ECO-CELL go to http://www.eco-cell.org, or for more information about the cell phone drive and fundraiser at Rider, contact Duru at duru@rider.edu.

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