Lt. Gov. Sheila Simon presented a $5,000 check to two regional domestic violence shelters to honor Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

The checks were donated from Verizon Wireless after Simon collected 1,000 cellular phones to give to the company. Verizon donates $10 per cell phone with a maximum of $10,000 each year. Friday completed Simon’s third annual cell phone drive, which has reached the maximum each year. Phones were collected at Simon’s office, the Illinois State Fair, DuQuoin State Fair and the Department of Central Management Services and donated to Verizon’s Hopeline program.

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Simon said she wanted to choose shelters this year that do great work serving domestic violence survivors with limited resources. The Women’s Shelter in Cairo and HOPE in Rochelle each received a check.

“This money means that we will be able to expand on our efforts to provide a safe and secure environment for the women and children who come to our program in need of our services,” said Jeannine Woods, executive director of the Cairo Women’s Shelter.

Every year, the Cairo Women’s Shelter and its sister agency, Guardian Family Services in Metropolis, Illinois serve around 600 domestic violence survivors, many of whom are unemployed or hold minimum wage jobs. HOPE serves around 450 survivors each year, according to the presentation’s press release.

“We are going to use a portion of those funds to be able to help women repair their cars,” Ruth Carter, executive director of HOPE, said. “So they can get to the resources, they can get to court, they can get to jobs and to child care.”

The Hopeline program takes the collected phones, refurbishes them and sells them with all proceeds going to support local domestic violence shelters and programs. Phones that are not in good enough condition for the drive are recycled. This program also helps the domestic violence agencies acquire phones equipped with prepaid minutes for domestic violence victims to use. Dorothy Jones, associate director of Strategic and Government Accounts at Verizon, said this program is nationwide and has grown a lot since it’s start in 1995.

“Everyone has cell phones, and when you buy new ones what do you do with the old one? You can donate it,” Simon said.

Simon said though $5,000 may not seem like much money to some people, it will greatly impact the two shelters.

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“We’re really excited, particularly excited for me, to be making the presentation here at the SIU Domestic Violence Clinic, which I helped to get going,” Simon said.

The checks were presented Friday to the shelters in Kaplan Hall, SIU’s Domestic Violence Clinic. Simon, a former law professor, helped found Kaplan Hall, where as a part of the School of Law, students in their second or third year work directly with domestic violence victims from Jackson, Williamson and Union counties and provide free legal representation in seeking protection orders. The students are assisted by an experienced lawyer.

“It’s a way for you to learn about domestic violence, to learn about the importance of domestic violence in people’s lives, whether they have a case that comes to you as a divorce case or as a personal injury case or something entirely different,” she said. “But for you to know about domestic violence is going to make you better lawyers no matter what you do,” Simon said.