Brothers turned business partners aim to mow 50 free lawns in San Antonio

SAN ANTONIO — Two San Antonio brothers are now business partners after being inspired to mow 50 free lawns in their community.

Adrian Estrella and Nathan Andrade have already transformed six lawns in the area. 

Each time, their parents document the work and send it to Rodney Smith Jr., the founder of Raising Men and Women Lawn Care Services.

Estrella and Andrade’s pursuit to mow all these lawns for free comes from the “50 Yard Challenge.” A challenge Smith has put out through his nonprofit. 

The challenge? Any kids willing to mow 50 lawns for free will be awarded lawn equipment when they’re done.

When the boys’ mom heard about this challenge almost a year ago on the radio she knew it would be perfect for them.

“I always wanted to help people but I never knew how I could do it at such a young age… So being able to mow lawns for people who can’t do it is pretty cool,” Estrella said.

The challenge means more to 14-year-old Estrella than just earning new lawn equipment. His mom was once a single mother and his step-father is a veteran.

These are two of the demographics Smith’s nonprofit works to help. Raising Men and Women Lawn Care Services pushes kids to help the elderly, disabled, single parents, and veterans.

Smith got the idea to start this nonprofit in 2015 when he stopped to help an elderly man with his yard. After that, he took to Facebook.

“It just started growing,” Smith said.

One-by-one he challenged children to mow 50 lawns for free. Since then, he said around 5,000 kids have participated in his challenge.

Providing kids new lawn equipment and the structure they need to lead a life of entrepreneurship is another goal of Smith’s.

“Now some of those kids own their own landscaping businesses,” said Smith.

Estrella and Andrade will work together on the next 44 houses they plan to fix-up. After that, Estrella who is in ROTC right now, said one day he would like to have a lawn care business.