Alexis Kimball of Jacksonville, Florida, the United States, thought she was making a third appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show to report back on her Ellen-sponsored trip to Atlantis Paradise Island resort in the Bahamas.
In two earlier appearances, she also received a 65-inch television and US$10,000 (RM41,830) cash for her teenage dream of opening an animal rescue.
Kimball, 32, certainly didn’t expect more.
So in the show that aired on Nov 18, she talked about her trip, as DeGeneres showed clips of her in a VIP suite, feeding some of the resort’s marine life and swimming with a pod of dolphins rescued from Hurricane Katrina.
DeGeneres then did what DeGeneres often does on the show. She surprised her guest with an oversize cardboard check.
The host gave Kimball another US$10,000. “We want to continue helping you, ” she said. “We want you to open that rescue place.”
Kimball, advertising sales and marketing director at a radio station in Jacksonville, was stunned.
“I had no idea, ” she said. “I was shocked. So grateful... Ellen surprised me once again.”
What she calls her “Epic Ellen Experience” began in September, when Kimball, who said she is a “huge, huge Ellen fan”, got tickets to be in the audience for one of the talk show’s episodes. She was called up to the stage to play the Holey Roller game, which typically involves rolling a small ball across the stage to a target hole while blindfolded.
Kimball did not win in the first appearance but got to meet DeGeneres and received the 65-inch TV. Still, DeGeneres brought her back for a second try. She was again called to the stage and again did not get the ball to the target hole. But DeGeneres had rigged the proceedings so she could take home US$10,000 for her planned animal rescue.
“I wanted Alexis to win ‘Holey Roller’ so bad, I may have cheated, ” the host wrote on Twitter.
The host had Kimball wear a massive stuffed cat head so she could not see the target hole.
And when she missed it, DeGeneres and the audience cheered that she was right on the money and a show staffer brought Kimball a large stack of cash. The host then told her about the trip, which was designed to show potential tourists a part of the Bahamas that was undamaged by Hurricane Dorian earlier this year.
On the latest show, Kimball thanked DeGeneres for “jumpstarting” what now has a name: Creature Comforts Rescue Inc.
“You have equipped me to do so much good, ” she said.
Initially, the rescue will help homeless animals, but her ultimate vision is to also pair rescue animals with sick children, with the goal of the children and their families ultimately adopting their paired animal.
With DeGeneres’ financial support and endorsement, Kimball said, her dream is now a “realistic” goal.
For now, the DeGeneres donations have been in put in savings, except for US$1,000 (RM4,183) Kimball donated to the Ellen DeGeneres Campus of the Dian Fossey Gorilla
Fund, which supports organisations working for wildlife conservation. “It was the least I could do, ” she said on the latest show. “I wish I could do more.”
Until Kimball finishes work on her master’s degree in business administration in April, she will raise money, volunteer for existing rescues and read everything she can find on starting and operating an animal rescue. She has already obtained nonprofit status for Creature Comforts.
“My life will never be the same, ” Kimball said. “I made some great connections on the show. I want to keep her (DeGeneres) in the loop and make her proud.” – Tribune News Service/The Daytona Beach News-Journal
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