Paige Suelzer with her Phone of the Wind at the 577 Foundation. The project was for her Girl Scout Gold Award.
PERRYSBURG – Tucked back into a corner of the 577 Foundation is a wooden phone booth with a rotary phone.
The phone is connected to nothing except the wind. It is there for people who are grieving to connect and talked with loved ones who have died.
The Phone of the Wind was a Girls Scout project for Bowling Green High School senior Paige Suelzer. She built the booth and installed the phone to earn her Gold Award.
The Girl Scout Gold Award is the highest and most prestigious award in Girl Scouting, comparable to the Boy Scouts of America’s Eagle Scout.
“This is not an original idea,” Suelzer said.
She said she originally saw it on CBS Sunday Morning, which had a really inspiring story about one out in the Pacific Northwest.
“I thought it could benefit our community,” she said, “especially after COVID. People really needed somebody to talk to.”
Suelzer said a person can go up to the Phone of the Wind, pick up the receiver and speak to passed-on loved ones.
She called the process verbal journaling.
“I thought that could benefit people who had a sudden death in their family,” she said.
It took her about five hours to put the booth together. It took much longer to organize the project.
Suelzer said she originally worked with the Wood County Park District to find a spot in the W. W. Knight Preserve.
“It’s just too loud and we couldn’t find anywhere private,” she said.
She then contacted Hospice of Northwest Ohio, which suggested the 577 Foundation.
“They were really excited because they were actually thinking about doing one back in 2020. They were really eager to do the project,” she said.
The phone is situated to the west of the main house, tucked back against the tree line near a bench.
“I feel like it’s the best place for it. There’s not a lot of noise and it’s remote. It’s just kind of perfect for the purpose of the phone,” Suelzer said.
While she said organizing her team and finding a location was difficult, the search for a rotary phone was no small feat.
She and her parents, Marc and Alisa, went to different antique stores looking for a rotary phone, and when they couldn’t find one, they realized maybe these weren’t old enough to be an antique.
They ordered one from eBay.
Learning how to use the phone was yet another challenge.
“My parents had to teach me, I didn’t know,” she said. “I was trying to dial it and I was like, I don’t get it.”
She has been a member of Girl Scout Troup 10799 in Bowling Green since kindergarten.
“I think the Gold Award is about making an impact in your community. It’s really about having a lasting change … and I just thought it would be something good to leave in our community,” Suelzer explained about her project.
She said she didn’t plan to do any more Phones of the Wind, but added she was hopeful other Girl and Boy Scouts in the area would look at the project and decide they wanted to add one to their area.
She plays clarinet in the BGHS band and is a member of DECA and the National Honor Society. She is planning to major in biomedical engineering in college.
“I want to leave something that is going to better the world,” she said.
