If you’ve ever lost a ball at Washoe County Golf Course, outside Reno, Nevada, there’s a good chance it’s going to a local high school golf team, thanks to a healthy habit of Joe Melcher Jr.
Melcher takes daily walks along the golf course near where he lives at Premier Residences. He has found 2,460 golf balls over the years. He takes them home, washes them and sorts them by color, brand and logo. They are stored in boxes in his residence.
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But Melcher, 96, is running out of room and will donate them to the high school golf teams later in April.
Reno’s Joe Melcher Jr. has found more than 2,000 golf balls on his daily walks along Washoe County Golf Course.
Melcher, who was the Washoe County recorder for 20 years (1979-99), believes in staying active, and part of his routine involves strolling along the fenceline of the Washoe County Golf Course each day for the past five years. Nearly every day, he runs across golf balls that have gone astray. Eventually, he started gathering them up and bringing them home.
Some days, he does not find any golf balls; on other days he finds several.
“It’s like Easter Egg hunting every day,” his son, Kevin Melcher, said. “Some days, no balls are found at all, and other days, many are found.”
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Melcher moved to Reno with his parents in the 1930s. They owned and operated the first wedding chapel in Reno, Park Wedding Chapel, near the Pioneer Theater.
“I love driving around town with him because he knows every little spot. He says, ‘Oh, this used to be this or this used to be that,'” Kevin Melcher said.
Melcher attended Southside Elementary School, Mt. Rose Elementary School, Billinghurst Junior High School and Reno High School (Class of 1947).
This article originally appeared on Reno Gazette Journal: Nevada man finds 2,460 golf balls for high schools
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