Rodney Smith Jr. just finished traveling to all 50 states, but he wasn’t sightseeing. He was mowing lawns for veterans.
Four years ago, Smith saw an elderly man struggling to cut his grass and stopped to help. After Smith finished mowing, the man was so touched that Smith decided to keep the momentum going.
He founded Raising Men Lawn Care Service, which provides free lawn mowing for the elderly, disabled, single mothers, and veterans.
Then he took it on the road. He finished his fifth tour of all 50 states last week, and this time, it was just for veterans.
Smith started in his home state of Alabama, driving through the heartland, but eventually hit a roadblock. He needed to fly to Alaska and Hawaii. Smith, who has more than 83,000 Twitter followers, has a large online presence, and Delta Air Lines heard about his plight.
He relies on donations for his lodging and transportation, and the airline flew him to Hawaii and Alaska, where he met Katie Rachel, a former Air Force nurse who met her husband on her first shift at Elmendorf Air Force Base.
“He was my first patient on my first shift at my new hospital, and that was nine years ago,” she said in a video Smith posted to his Twitter. “Three kids ago.”
Her husband has since died, and when Smith asked her about what a free mowed lawn meant to her, she choked up.
“It’s an amazing gesture of kindness,” she said. “Just moved into this new house without my husband for the first time, and for you to come and mow my lawn was just something out of the blue. Shows God’s looking out for me.”
Smith is hoping to go to all seven continents next, and he’s also encouraging children across the U.S. to mow lawns in their own communities. He says 400 children in six countries are taking part in his 50 Yard Challenge, to mow 50 lawns for the elderly, disabled, single moms, and veterans, free of charge.
That will be about 20,000 lawns, but Smith says that’s not the only way to help out. Not everyone wants to do yardwork, and if you have another idea, he says, don’t wait to try it out.
“Just get out there and do it,” he said over the phone. “We’re all given ideas for a reason.”
