Monday, May 17, 2010 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. held at the WCCCD – Northwest Campus  -  LSB L-17    8200 W. Outer Drive in Detroit, MI

The purpose of this event is to inform the audience of the many different ways the Sheriff’s office is working to keep the community safe. Topics and information will include: Safety tips, Gang Awareness, Emergency Senior Cell Phones, File of Life, Tether Unit, Internet Security, Narcotics Hotline, Wayne County Sheriff’s Office new website, Dose of Reality Tour, and Deputy Reserves.

 Participants attending this event will:

• Become knowledgeable about what the Sheriff’s office is doing in terms of gang awareness in the community
• Learn safety tips to protect themselves and family
• Receive a report on the other services offered to the community such as internet safety, emergency senior cell phones, etc.

THIS IS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC AT NO COST! Light refreshments will be served. Come out and say hello to Sheriff Benny Napoleon and his staff.

For more information, please contact the School of Continuing Education at 313-496-2704 or the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office at 313-224-0614

PTCI (Panhandle Telephone Cooperative, Inc.) along with its wholly owned subsidiary company, Panhandle Telecommunication Systems, Inc. provides an array of communication services to customers in the Oklahoma Panhandle area.  Services include state of the art Residential and Business Telephone services with many calling features, plus long distance service; High Speed Internet service with help desk; Cellular telephone service with nationwide plans, free mobile to mobile and free nights and weekends;  Digital Cable TV service with 140+ channels, local networks, high definition including local networks,  DVR, and pause live features.  PTCI was established in 1954 and its subsidiary in 1983.  Both are headquartered in Guymon, Oklahoma.

The 911 Cell Phone Bank announces its partnership with several new Colleges and Universities across the United States. We are working with various campus Police Departments and/or the Dean of Student Affairs. We encourage them to stress the fact that college life is just a segment of our overall society; additionally, female students are subject to the same potential difficulties as are encountered by society as a whole.  The programs are being actively promoted via student bulletin boards, campus e-mail system, etc.  While this is a new effort, we are anticipating a high degree of success.

We don’t want to forget about our youngsters returning to school this year. If you would like to lend a helping hand please contact one Debra Johnson, the Public Information Officer for Flagler County Sheriff’s office at 386-586-4814. The Task Force is currently collecting school supplies for at-risk families in Flagler County, Florida.

Donations of all sorts will be accepted which include some of the following: crayons, backpacks, rulers, scissors, tape, notebooks and erasers.

You can take your donation to any of the locations listed below:

Flagler County Sheriff’s Operations Center at 1001 Justice Lane in Bunnell; the Sheriff’s Office’s Robert E. McCarthy Substation at 17 D Old Kings Road in Palm Coast;  the Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigation Division at 4721 Moody Boulevard, Suite 503; the Bunnell Police Department at 200 South Pine Street, and the Flagler Beach Police Department at 204 South Flagler Avenue.

For additional information contact Kathy Vazquez at (386) 586-4846 or Teresa Shaw at (386) 586-4847.

Donate Your Cell Phone

The Southern Main Agency on Aging (SMAA) has partnered with Scarborough High School’s Environmental Club of Scarborough (ECOS) to collect cell phones for area senior citizens who can use them to dial 911 in case of an emergency.

Elder Advocate Mary Hadlock said the project began last fall when she was an intern with SMAA.  She contacted Scarborough High School looking for students to assist with the collection of cell phones and found ECOS already collected used cell phones to recycle.  The students agreed to donate the phones they collected with the understanding the phones will be recycled if they are not used by the seniors.

According to Hadlock, a benefit to having an emergency cell phone is that they still work when there is no electric supply, unlike a Lifeline-type of devise which needs electricity to work.  Seniors are encouraged to have more than one emergency notification device.

Emily Sherman, ECOS teacher, said the students began collecting cell phones years ago when it seemed students were upgrading their phones even when the current ones were functioning properly. She said the increase in e-waste in landfills is excessive and the students want to lessen environmental impact anywhere they can.

ECOS donated more than 200 phones to the program, mostly from students. Sherman said next year the club plans to focus more on education about recycling alongside with the phone and battery collections.

More than 30 students are active members of the club, which has a roster of nearly 80. They are a dedicated crew according to Sherman who also said that the students decide what recycling programs they will participate in and what causes they will support. Hadlock said it was her goal to bring generations together with the program.  Hadlock also worked with Jobs for Maine Graduates, Portland High School and a collaborative education class in Gray – New Gloucester to collect cell phones for the program.

Once the phones are collected, Hadlock sends them to the 911 Cell Phone Bank. The program is like a bank—she deposits a number of phones and is allowed to withdraw the same number of phones by ordering them. They come back to her cleaned of personal information and individually packaged with an extra battery and charger.

“We are hoping it will be an ongoing community service project for the students,” said Hadlock.  For more information about the senior emergency cell phone project at SMAA, call (207)396-6500.