New Life for Tennis Balls

Last week we were able to donate some of our used tennis balls from the Goergen Athletic Center (GAC) to be enjoyed by the animals at the Verona Street Animal Hospital. The result, as you can see pictured above, is one happy pup and many more! A special thanks to Athletics and Recreation for gathering these for us upon request and to Director of Support Operations Pat Beaumont for recognizing the need and delivering the balls to the animal hospital.

GAC generates a regular supply of tennis balls, as over time they lose the bounce they need to be suitable for tennis matches. Luckily we have several options to choose from rather than simply discarding them in the trash. We try to donate these locally first whenever possible. Similarly to last week’s situation, we have donated these to Humane Society of Greater Rochester’s Lollypop Farm. Some of the area school districts have also utilized our tennis balls. They cut the balls in half and put them on the bottom of chair and desk legs to prevent scratching the floors. There has also been a time or two when we have more than what can be reused locally, when we sent the balls to Rebounces to be recycled into new balls.

If you like the concept of re-purposing our materials to be used to benefit animals then you will also like another project we are working on. Our wood shop in Sage Art Center generates sawdust on a regular basis and as the material is clean wood, it can actually be used as animal bedding. We recently discovered that the Seneca Park Zoo can take the material for that purpose, and are getting ready to prepare our first batch for their taking!