Elise Marx collects "found" golf balls and sells them to raise funds for local animal shelters
Elise Marx collects "found" golf balls and sells them to raise funds for local animal shelters
Elise Marx collects "found" golf balls and sells them to raise funds for local animal shelters
Approximately one year ago Elise Marx, 7-years-old, had an “ah-ha” moment when she was taking a walk alongside a golf course fairway with her Papa and she spotted an orange golf ball that someone had hit out of bounds and lost. As she and her Papa continued their walk, they discovered a few more lost golf balls. It became like an Easter egg hunt. It was fun, and from that day forward, while the rest of the world was on lockdown last year, they walked almost every day to find lost golf balls. After a few months, however, Elise started to wonder what she was going to do with the couple of hundred golf balls she had found.
So, she harnessed all of her computer skills and searched the Internet with her Papa and Bubby, Michael and Liz Mallen, and she discovered that a good used golf ball is worth about $2. Suddenly, Elise hatched an idea that combined her creativity with her love for rescue animals.
Elise has always been surrounded by four rescue dogs. Those include her own beloved rescue dog, Elvis, whom she loves and cares for along with her mom and dad, Lindsay and Matthew Marx, and her grandparents’ three rescue dogs, Bella, Bentley and Bandit. So, it didn't take long for Elise decide that she wanted to sell those found golf balls and donate all of the money to the community’s two animal shelters.
Elise got to work cleaning golf balls and putting them in groups of five, sorted by brand, and sealed up in zip-lock bags. She then designed her own “Charity Event Golf Ball Sale” signs and she and her family went down to the fairway on a Saturday last fall where Elise sold over $400 worth of golf balls (5 for $10) to some of the nicest golfers you could ever meet, including Hamilton County Commission Chairman Chip Baker, who prefers yellow golf balls because they are easier to find when he hits them out of bounds.
Elise donated over $400 to the McKamey Animal Shelter last fall, and she promised County Commissioner Baker that she would continue collecting golf balls through the winter, and when spring 2021 came she would organize another golf ball sales event benefiting the brand-new Hamilton County Humane Education Society facility and all of its rescue residents.
Elise followed through. For the past two Saturdays, Elise has set up her golf ball stand, and she again sold golf balls to very kind and generous golfers, thus generating about $600 in revenue for the new HES facility.
In the past year, because of her dedication and hard work, 7-year-old Elise Marx earned and donated over $1,000 to the community’s animal rescue facilities. Elise has already decided that she wants to pursue a career as a veterinarian.
Elise is a second grader and is home schooling this year but will be returning to campus in the fall. In addition to loving and caring for animals, Elise enjoys the ocean, flying kites, watching Pink Panther cartoons, riding her scooter, reading novels and playing tennis with her mom and dad.