The story of how more than 6,000 American kids started mowing the lawns of veterans, single parents, and the elderly didn’t begin in the boardroom. It started with an immigrant who had a heart for service and a passion for the nation that gave him so much.
Rodney Smith Jr.’s July 4 birthday is shared with America, but he jokes that he’s really her stepson. He arrived from Bermuda at 16 and attended a small boarding school in upstate New York. Though he attended college in Florida after graduating high school, he struggled to adjust.
“I just prayed to God and asked Him to use me as a vessel. He didn’t give me an answer that day, not a month later, not even a year later. It would happen a few years later. And fast forward, here I am,” he told We Are The Mighty.
Smith made his way to Huntsville, Alabama, to live with his grandmother and attend Alabama A&M to earn his undergraduate degree in computer science.
“I was walking home from school one day when I saw an elderly man mowing his lawn outside, and he was obviously struggling,” he recalled. “So I did what anyone would do; I pulled over, parked, and helped him.”
It wasn’t something that just anyone would do, but it was a moment that changed everything and went from kindness to purpose. What started as a personal promise to give back morphed into so much more.
Wanting to empower and challenge young people to serve their communities, Smith founded Raising Men and Women Lawn Care Service in 2016.
“Now we have 6,000 kids across the country that are doing what we call the 50-yard challenge, and that’s basically kids mowing 50 free lawns for the elderly, disabled, single parents, and veterans,” Smith said.
As he built the organization, Smith prioritized giving back to the military community.
“My uncle Wyatt served 20 years in the military,” he said. “I wanted to do something for veterans and honor veterans, because when I first came to America, I learned about veterans and all the sacrifices that they’ve made to the country.”
It didn’t stop at veterans. Smith built a movement that included taking care of the lawns of active-duty service members deployed and Gold Star Families. His mission was to get all 50 states involved in the challenge and spread the message of the importance of teaching character, kindness, and service.
The kids joining the challenge don’t just mow and leave; they stay for the life lessons and build relationships.
Smith tells the story of Cannon, a teenager from Midwest City, Oklahoma, who completed the original 50‑yard challenge, then took on 100 yards, and is now working on a military edition: 50 lawns for veterans and active‑duty service members.
“He met a 90‑year‑old veteran, and he became really close with this veteran, and sadly, this veteran passed away, and it really affected him, and it changed his life,” Smith shared. “When Cannon gets older, he can pass on those stories to his kids and just have those memories live on.”
For many of these volunteers, it’s the first time they’ve heard the firsthand stories of war and sacrifice.
“There was one veteran in Utah, and he lost both of his limbs,” he said. “He was telling me how he was over there, and he got blown up, explaining how it smelled, the Agent Orange. Whenever they tell me these stories, I feel like a kid, just listening. I start to envision it.”
Smith believes these conversations can transform the next generation and how they view service. It’s been a decade since it began, and though the movement has gone viral and received recognition from governors and CEOs, as well as Presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump, it isn’t the accolades that inspire him. It’s his faith.
“I remember one day praying to God and saying, ‘I see the path that you want me to go down. All I do is ask you to provide,’” he said. “And ever since that moment, I don’t really ask for donations. I just do the work, and He provides.”
He smiled then and shared a story of how, after one day of prayer, he was short on lawn mowers. Then an Amazon driver pulled up with 10 more from a man he’d never met before.
Smith is on a new mission for the foundation’s 10th anniversary.
“I’m on a campaign to get all 50 governors to sign my American flag lawnmower and then take it to the White House and eventually auction that lawnmower off and give 100% of the funds to an organization that supports veterans,” he explained.
On a personal note, Smith has been steadily working toward his own personal goal: citizenship.
“I couldn’t do what I’m doing anywhere else. I could only do it in America, because in America, you can start from nothing and become something,” he explained. “I get to live this mission out every day, live my American dream, and I encourage the youth in America: Just get out there and do positive things.”
In a time when it feels like we argue more than we agree, his work is a quiet counter‑story: kids, veterans, single parents, and elders, all brought together by a lawnmower and a willingness to serve.
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