![\"Britt](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/45373994-ab94-48e7-b2b4-e44849fd8e4a_1735249415.jpg\")
<\/a>CAPE CORAL, Fla. \u2014<\/p>\nIn between the streets and canals that call Cape Coral home, no neighborhood lawn is safe from 18-year-old Braylon Beckers.<\/p>\n
A month ago, when Braylon started cutting lawns for neighbors, he decided to offer an unbeatable price.<\/p>\n
“They were like, what?! For free?!” said Braylon.<\/p>\n
So far, Braylon’s mowed over 50 lawns, free of charge. While profits are low, the feeling of giving back is high.<\/p>\n
“They’re really thankful and appreciative,” said Braylon. “It’s just awesome to see.”<\/p>\n
Like most acts of kindness, Braylon’s are inspired by a mentor who came before him.<\/p>\n
Rodney Smith Junior is the owner of “Raising Men and Women Lawn Care.” He cuts lawns for veterans, seniors, and people with disabilities, for free.<\/p>\n
“I was leaving school one day, and I came across an elderly man outside mowing his lawn,” said Rodney. “It looked like he was struggling, so I did what anyone would do: I pulled over and helped him out. Little did I know that one small act of kindness would vastly change my life forever.”<\/p>\n
In 2016, Rodney started “the 50-yard challenge.” A call to action for kids to cut 50 yards for free in their communities.<\/p>\n
“It started off small, and then it eventually grew,” said Rodney. “Once COVID-19 hit, that’s when we saw a big explosion of kids signing up.”<\/p>\n
Today, over 6,000 kids and teens, like Braylon, have participated across the country.<\/p>\n
“A lot of the people we help are on fixed income, especially the elderly, the disabled, and the veterans,” said Rodney. “The kids get a sense of pride in knowing they’re giving back and they’re gaining character.”<\/p>\n
What started as one neighbor helping another has grown into a movement, and, for Braylon, mowing lawns is bigger than starting his business. <\/p>\n
“Never let your thoughts bring you down,” said Braylon.<\/p>\n
It’s determination to move kindness forward one cut at a time.<\/p>\n
“Never let your brain tell you that you can’t do this because you can. You can achieve,” said Braylon.<\/p>\n
You can learn more about Raising Men and Women Lawn Care Service on its website here<\/a>.<\/p>\n DOWNLOAD\u202fthe free\u202fGulf Coast News app<\/a>\u202ffor your latest news and alerts on breaking news, weather, sports, entertainment, and more on your phone or tablet. And check out the Very Local Gulf Coast app<\/a> to stream news, entertainment and original programming on your TV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cape Coral teen drives kindness forward in 50 yard lawn mowing challenge CAPE CORAL, Fla. \u2014 In between…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361992,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[147280,147278,209,211,210,59162,21096,11754,147284,48833,34965,147281,10880,37452,74603,147279,147282,147283,800,147285,3393,147286],"class_list":["post-361991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-50-yard-challenge","tag-braylon-beckers","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-cape-coral-teen","tag-community-service","tag-covid-19","tag-disabled-people","tag-fixed-income","tag-florida-teen","tag-free-lawn-mowing","tag-giving-back","tag-kindness","tag-lawn-care","tag-lawn-mowing-challenge","tag-raising-men-and-women","tag-rodney-smith-junior","tag-seniors","tag-teen-volunteer","tag-veterans","tag-yard-mowing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}