In February 1990 Frank Dosio was employed as a Field Technician out of Poughkeepsie NY, and was a proud member of CWA Local 1120.  In the course of his work he learned that patients in Castle Point N.Y. Veterans Administration Hospital had no telephone service in their rooms.

Many of these patients were not ambulatory and needed help to be pushed in their wheel chairs to the coin phones, or were dependent on the staff to transport a portable coin phone to their bedside.  Access was irregular and the technology was primitive.

Frank came up with a plan to help these veterans.  He would combine the volunteer efforts of the members in Local 1120 with materials and other assistance from the NYNEX Corporation and the Telephone Pioneers of America.  This group of extremely dedicated individuals reached beyond our wildest expectations to complete a project of great magnitude in a very short time frame.

On July 4, 1990 the Veterans Administration Hospital at Castle Point, New York became the first Veterans Hospital in our country to provide bedside telephone service to its hospitalized veterans.

Frank’s next goal was to bring PT Phone Home to veterans’ hospitals nationwide.  In October 1992 the Department of Veterans Affairs estimated that it would take approximately 15 to 19 years to implement bedside telephone service.  The Veterans Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives figured the cost would be approximately 180 to 220 million dollars. 

Frank Dosio and his corps of volunteers and corporate supporters proved those calculations wrong.  Since the birth of PT Phone Home at Castle Point, CWA has reached across the continental United States hand in hand with the assistance from the I.B.E.W. to wire all 172 veterans hospitals. The partnership of volunteers of the PT Phone Home Project with the Department of Veterans Affairs, and with the cooperation of all seven R-Boccs, AT&T and GTE, accomplished bedside telephone service for all 172 V.A. hospitals in only four years.  The project was completed at a cost of approximate 30 million dollars, saving millions in taxpayer money.

In 1993 Frank Dosio received the Thousand Points of Light Award from then President Clinton for not only having the idea to reach out to the veterans in our area, but to follow it through to provide service to hospitalized veterans nationwide.

PT PHONE HOME GAVE THOSE THAT FOUGHT TO PROTECT OUR COUNTRY THE DIGNITY THEY SO RIGHTFULLY DESERVE. 

To Frank Dosio and all those who volunteered for this project nationwide, a special thank you goes out from all of us that care.