Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Two Trenton kids, one lawn mower, thousands of people impressed
So as I type this there’s an election going on, and by the time you read this in the hard copy of the newspaper Trenton will have a new mayor and there will be a lot of talk about “the future.”
But if you really want to see the future of Trenton, if you really want to see what tomorrow can bring, if you really want to see the next wave, look no further than Richard McLaughlin and his best friend, Nile Handy. Over the weekend, the Trenton 16-year-olds became Facebook celebrities when their picture was snapped by city resident Abrien Reid and posted to the social media site.
To say they captured the imagination of city (and suburban) residents would be an understatement. I mean, we’re at 3,000+ shares and counting.
The picture is simple: The two of them standing there, sun setting in the background. They both have small, shy smiles on their faces and in the foreground is McLaughlin’s BMX-style bike. Attached to it is a small trailer. On the trailer? A lawn mower, weed trimmer, and gas can.
“I started the business last summer,” McLaughlin told me. “A lot of kids my age in Trenton aren’t trying to do anything positive. People want to be in the streets, or on electronics all day. I just go out and cut grass and have fun.”
When McLaughlin started his lawn care business last year, he was solo and he had no trailer. He’d simply(!) pull the lawn mower with one hand and ride his bike with the other. Soon, business picked up, his buddy Handy joined in, and today, they spend their weekends and after-schools running their own grass cutting business. (BTW: The business number is 609-498-2636.)
“We have regular customers, but we’ll just knock on doors and ask people if they’d like us to take care of their lawn,” McLaughlin said. “Sometimes they say yes, sometimes they say no.”
His mom, Georgette Highsmith, isn’t surprised her son is out there running his own business.
“I look at it as normal,” she said. “I have four children, and I always taught them the only way to get through life is to work for things. Nothing is going to fall out of the sky, nothing is just handed to you.”
Future plans for the high school junior-to-be include college and being an entrepreneur. As for his best pal Nile? “I plan on being an orthopedic surgeon,” Handy said.
And while cutting lawns wasn’t exactly on Handy’s to-do list — he’s going to be taking college courses by senior year of high school — he’s certainly learning a lot on the job, not the least of which how to handle money.
“I want to buy sneakers,” he admits. “But Richard is teaching me. He’s got very good money habits, and he’s always telling me to save my money, so that’s what I’m doing.”
Nile’s mom, Tamieka Laing, wasn’t thrilled at first her son was hitting the business trail.
“When he first brought it to my attention, I said it was dangerous and that we have money, that you want for nothing,” she said. “He said he appreciated everything we did for him but that he wanted his own money. So I told him not to go into anyone’s houses and to be careful with pets. Now that he’s doing it? It’s really cool, really awesome. A lot of kids are doing negative things, and I’m all for the positive.”
Handy, for his part, is happy to be showing the people of the city and beyond what McLaughlin and himself are up to.
“Everybody respects the hustle, that we’re out here making an honest dollar,” he said. “Everyone also stereotypes everyone else. Some people look at me and say I’m this way or that way, but no one knows who I really am. And who I am is someone that goes out there and works everyday.”
I’ll tell you this much: That’s more than a lot of adults can say. And it’s also more than every kid in my town can say. I’ve been living there for nearly 20 years and not once — not once! — have I got a knock on my door where a kid was standing there with a lawn mower, a snow shovel, or anything of the sort.
It’s easy to say Trenton needs more kids like McLaughlin and Handy; but the truth of the matter is every town needs more kids like McLaughlin and Handy which actually … welp, I’ve got one word left in this column, and I’ll direct it right at the two 16-year-old entrepreneurs: Franchising.