Answering Call For Help
Reprinted from the Washington
Post
Abby Kerbel remembers the black eyes and broken bones that she used to see on a former neighbor. Every two or three months, she said, there was the noise of sirens, growing louder as police approached the
neighbor's home. "We'd see the police cars come and an ambulance sometimes," Abby
said. So when Abby, 12, of Rockville, wanted to do a service project as part of her bat mitzvah, she said, she knew how she wanted to help.
By word of mouth and through ads in the bulletins of two Montgomery County synagogues, Abby spread the word that she was collecting used cell phones that domestic violence victims could use to call
911. Since then, she has collected so many cell phones for the Montgomery Sheriff's Office -- about one-fourth of the total donated
last year -- that Sheriff Ray Kight recently honored her with a framed certificate, book bag and private tour of his
offices. "We're very proud of you and very grateful for what you've done for the county," the sheriff told
the seventh-grader from Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School as he gave her a hug. "You're a great little
girl."
Since October, Abby has collected 110 cell phones. Last year, the sheriff's office received about 400 cell phones, said sheriff's Lt. Jim Dunn. "She's done an excellent job," said sheriff's Sgt. Mary Meiklejohn, of the domestic violence unit. "She went through and matched the batteries and phones and chargers. That saves us a tremendous amount of
time." Most of the phones will be given to people who obtain protective orders requiring their abusers to stay away, so they can call if their attacker follows or harasses them, Dunn said. Cell phones don't need an active service contract to call 911 if the battery is charged, sheriff's officials said. Dunn said he doesn't know of a specific instance where a donated cell phone has saved a Montgomery domestic violence victim's life, but he said it's hard to know because the county's 911 center can't track calls from
cell phones. Also, Dunn said, it's difficult to measure the value of deterrence, such as determining how many times an abuser has stayed away knowing that a cell phone call might bring the
police. Since 1996, Montgomery sheriff's officials estimate they've given out more than 600 cell phones. A few also have been given to lower-income senior citizens who wanted access to emergency calls for their safety or because of poor health, Dunn
said. Abby said she and her parents thought of collecting cell phones because she wanted her service project to tie in with the Torah passage she would read for her Dec. 16 bat mitzvah. She said her reading, which was chosen according to the bat mitzvah date, involved the rape of Dinah by the son of a tribal chief in the story about
Jacob. Abby's mother, Judy Kerbel, collected phones from co-workers at GRC International, a Tysons Corner computer company, and her father spread the word at Ohr Kodesh synagogue in Chevy Chase, where he is the
education director. Friends and relatives donated, as well as strangers who saw the ads in the Ohr Kodesh bulletin and that of Abby's own synagogue, B'nai Israel in Rockville. Abby decorated a cardboard box with a colorful "Put Your Cell Phones Here" message and left them in the synagogue lobbies.?? Soon, cell phones began piling up. In her first delivery to the sheriff's office before Thanksgiving, she and her parents handed over six boxes of
phones. "People don't really want them," Abby said. "They're just lying around and getting in the
way."
Though Abby's bat mitzvah has passed, she said she'll keep collecting phones and delivering them to the sheriff's office as long as people keep donating
them. What would she like to tell victims of domestic violence? "Just try to do what you can to not end up dead the next
time." Her father said his daughter's campaign, called a tzedakah -- or charity -- project, is part of her transition into adulthood in the Jewish
community."You can know a child 12 1/2 years," said Steve Kerbel, "and you're still surprised by the nice things they
do." Anyone interested in donating a cell phone can reach the Montgomery Sheriff's Office domestic violence unit at 240-777-7016.
