Last Friday, students at Lake Orion High School participated in the school’s 7th annual Cell Out For Soldiers event where 1,879 students gave up their phones for the day to stand in unity with troops and their familie at home and overseas.

After taking two years off, LOHS Leadership students arrived early to prepare for the flood of freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors who were being asked to give up their cell phones for the day to raise money for the Cell Phones For Soldiers organization.

“We haven’t done it for two years but we’re really excited to be back. We’re really excited to see people wearing Cell Out t-shirts today and it’s a good energy day for us,” said LOHS Leadership teacher Lori Hogan.

Cell Phones For Soldiers is a charity organization that donates cell phone minutes to active duty military personnel so they can call loved ones back home.

Each cell phone collected is $1 that goes to Cell Phones For Soldiers. LOHS has donated more than $20,000 to Cell Phones for Soldiers in the seven years it has hosted the event.

In years prior, a majority of LOHS students choose to hand their phones over to the Leadership students, who would then sort the phones by fourth hour class and phones were returned at the end of the day. This year, for emergency purposes, students were able to keep their phones in bags that were then sealed for the day.

Students who participated received free Cell Out shirts to wear as well.

This year, LOHS combined the event with Charity Week, in which additional money raised by LOHS Leadership will be donated to Cell Phones For Soldiers.

— Megan Kelley