Do you yell “Fore!” or “Geranimo!” or just plain get out of the way at this fundraising event? Take a look at this idea from Nashua, NH we found.

[T]he Golf Ball Drop steadily pulls the fun in fundraising up a notch or two, using a helicopter to disburse 1,000 balls from overhead within moments.

According to event organizer Christina Austin, who is the YMCA of Greater Nashua’s administrative assistant, a former employee came up with this cool fundraising idea, which has grown in popularity each year. The rules are simple and the prizes plentiful.

The thousand golf balls will be dropped from a helicopter owned by Bob Clouthier of CR Helicopters of Nashua at an altitude of 500 feet above an area set up as a golf green at Camp Sargent. Balls are numbered to correspond with each purchase. Should your ball land a hole-in-one, you’ll go home $1,000 richer. There’s a $100 prize for the ball that lands closest to the pin, $75 for balls two through five that are closest to the pin, $50 for the sixth-closest to the pin and $50 for the ball that lands farthest from the pin.

How do you get in on the fun? Balls are being sold at the Nashua and Merrimack YMCAs at $10 each. Anyone who buys five balls will get a sixth one free.

Proceeds will benefit the YMCA’s Y Cares Financial Assistance Program, which lends support to individuals and families in the community who are living on fixed or limited incomes and can’t afford to pay for Y programs and services.

Read the full article here.

We ride ‘em. We race ‘em. Local businesses and families in the Chicago, Illinois area collect their pennies to rehabilitate them!

When horses young or old get sick, sometimes the easy option is to have the animal put down.

Sue Balla, president and co-founder of Field of Dreams Horse Rescue, says that instead, with a little love and a lot of help, those animals still can have a long life ahead of them.

However, rescuing horses that need a home and rehabilitation isn’t easy, either.

[A]rea businesses and families [help] by dropping their change into a Pennies for Ponies jar. The change-gathering effort will help pay for feed, rehabilitation and bedding for the animals, as well as the day-to-day costs of housing them.

Families also can become involved by collecting their spare change to donate to the horses.

The family that collects the most money will receive a day with the horses, a photo of the animals now at Field of Dreams, horse-themed books and note cards.

[…]

One St. Charles girl, Sarah Anderson, had friends and family donate money to the rescue rather than buy her a birthday gift, Balla said. That effort alone brought in $360 for the horses.

Read the full article here.