Healthy Habit Results in Generous Donation to WCSD Student Athletes

A Reno man is making the most of his daily walks, and his dedication is helping support student athletes in the Washoe County School District (WCSD).

96-year-old Joe Melcher, Jr. 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.

“It’s like Easter Egg hunting every day,” says his son, Kevin Melcher. “Some days, no balls are found at all, and other days, many are found.”

Five years later, Melcher – who is not a golfer himself— has retrieved, washed and sorted 2,460 golf balls by type, color, and logo. But his apartment is small, and when he started running out of storage space, his son suggested he donate them to the athletics program at WCSD. Most traditional high schools have golf teams that compete regionally and statewide.  

WCSD will distribute the balls gathered by Mr. Melcher at a meeting of district athletic directors later this month, and we thank him for this generous donation to our student athletes!