By Casey Adams
Cove Leader-Press
For nearly two years, a 14-year-old from Copperas Cove has spent her free time behind a lawn mower, helping military families, veterans, elderly residents, single parents and others who needed an extra hand.
She did it without asking for anything in return.
“I wasn’t looking for approval or anything,” Madyson said. “I just did it because it was right.”
Now, after completing 50 free lawn-care jobs, the 14-year-old ninth-grader has finished the 50-Yard Challenge through Raising Men & Women Lawn Care Service.
The Alabama-based nonprofit encourages children ages 8 to 17 to mow 50 lawns free of charge for people who need assistance, including elderly residents, people with disabilities, single parents, veterans and active-duty service members.
Raising Men & Women Lawn Care Service founder Rodney Smith Jr. confirmed Madyson is the first girl in the program to receive its new letterman-style jacket and Girl Power pin.
She is not the first girl to complete the challenge, a distinction Madyson herself was careful to make.
“Not the first girl to complete the 50-Yard Challenge, but I am the first girl to get the jacket and the Girl Power pin,” she said.
Madyson began the challenge when she was 12 after she and her family learned about it on Facebook.
“It just sounded like a good thing to do, like to help out the community and stuff,” she said.
Her first yard belonged to a woman whose husband had recently deployed. The woman was home with a young child, and Madyson offered to take one task off her plate.
At that point, Madyson was hardly an experienced lawn-care professional.
“I think I mowed our lawn like once before I started to do this, or like maybe twice,” she said. “But I wasn’t bad at it, so I was like, ‘Why not?’”
One of her toughest jobs belonged to an elderly woman whose front yard included a particularly steep slope. Madyson had to tackle both the front and backyard.
“That was pretty hard to get up,” she said. “But once we finished, we felt pretty accomplished.”
She later returned and did the same woman’s yard again.
“Plus, I got to meet her dogs after,” Madyson said.
An older woman Madyson approached while looking for yards initially had difficulty believing the service was really free.
“She was like, ‘Well, we don’t have money for it,’” Madyson’s mother recalled. “We’re like, ‘No, no, no, there’s literally no cost.’”
Afterward, the woman sent Madyson a thank-you card.
Other residents found their own small ways to show their appreciation. One family offered her a drink while she worked. Another resident gave her $5, which Madyson excitedly planned to spend on ice cream.
Her 50th lawn was for the Piper family.
Taylor Piper’s husband is active duty, and the couple’s twin daughters were born extremely premature at 25 weeks. For about five months, the family had been traveling back and forth to the hospital daily while also caring for their 1-year-old daughter.
One of the twins recently came home on oxygen, while her sister remained hospitalized.
“When Madyson advertised the free mows, my husband immediately jumped on and asked if we could be considered,” Piper said.
Madyson mowed both the front and back yards and did the edging.
“Without her help, our yard probably would’ve started looking like a scene from Jumanji!” Piper said.
For Madyson, the Piper family’s lawn marked No. 50.
“I finally did it,” she said. “I finally made it through all 50, even if it took me two years.”
Madyson and her mother posted on Facebook looking for people who qualified for the service, and she even went door to door looking for lawns to tackle. During one outing, she went door to door in temperatures around 25 degrees.
Madyson said she actually preferred mowing during cooler months and sometimes completed several yards in a day.
Her favorite lawn came during a trip to East Texas, where she tackled approximately an acre of the front yard on a roughly 110-acre property. The grass had grown as high as her thighs.
The job also gave her an opportunity to use a riding mower for the first time.
“It was really fun,” she said.
Her mother estimated Madyson put approximately 45 to 50 hours into the actual lawn work over the course of the challenge, not including the time her family spent transporting her and the equipment.
To document each completed job, Madyson took before-and-after photographs that were submitted to the organization.
Along the way, Madyson’s work earned recognition beyond simply checking lawns off her list.
She was named Mower of the Month during the challenge, an honor that came with a $150 award. She also earned a Mower of the Month pin, along with pins recognizing other aspects of her service, including mowing for veterans and first responders, snow removal, using personal protective equipment and persevering through the challenge over two years.
Completing all 50 yards also came with some new tools. Madyson received a new Craftsman push mower, Craftsman weed eater and Senix leaf blower.
Participants can continue serving after completing the original 50 yards, and Madyson said she is considering doing another 50 or taking on one of the program’s more targeted challenges.
For other young people who see the number 50 and think the challenge sounds impossible, Madyson has some advice.
“It’s not as hard as it sounds,” she said. “It feels really good to do it and know that you’re helping out your community.”
- Log in or Subscribe to post comments.