A few months ago I decided that I would take the plunge and join Facebook. I had some friends who were emigrating and some that were already gone. I wanted to keep in contact with them so up went my account. I wasn’t sure how to get it working at the start but quickly discovered some pages that I liked. One of them was the IAA Facebook page.
I read all the posts but one particular one caught my eye. Everybody can recycle old mobile phones for Goodies! When I read on I saw the options, I thought 'yes we could really do this!' I started out with the iTouch in mind but soon discovered that we would have enough phones for the iPad.
I knew that I had a few phones in a drawer and nearly every house had so I put up the post on my page and got a pretty good response. Then I sent out a text to all my friends, and sent the same text from other family members phones. Everybody got involved, Grandparents, Aunties, Uncles, Cousins. Everybody!
When my pack arrived from Geraldine and I saw all the envelopes I thought I would never do it but slowly the mobiles started to appear, one at a time. Then I would get messages and texts from friends and cousins to let me know that they had 5, 10 or maybe more collected for me. We started off putting them in a lunch box but this only lasted about a day because before I knew it I had 60 phones, then it just kept growing. At one stage I was even dreaming 'mobile phones'! I was thrilled because I knew that the iPad was something that David would really enjoy and he was my inspiration to keep collecting.
So the day came when my mobiles were collected and in a strange way I was nearly sad to see them go!!
Last Friday our iPad was delivered. We spent a day or two getting it ready and on the advice of my lovely friend Jen from IAA we ordered an otterbox defender case to keep it intact! We also downloaded some Apps for him (more advice from Jen was needed for this one), some that we had to pay for and others that we got on trial. (The trial is a great option because chances are the child will get fed up with the apps and they will have to be changed on a regular basis.)
So off we go on Sunday on our family holiday 4 of us plus our most prized possession, our Ipad! Hopefully, as well as being an education aid for David, it will come in very handy for Breakfast / Dinnertimes, car journeys etc.
What I would say to all other families trying to collect: you can do it, persevere and you will get there!
Email Geraldine on geraldinep@bpi.ie if you want to register for the scheme.
