In July 2025, David started his new career at a company he'd dreamed of working for for years and that he thought he would retire from. In April 2026, he was 1 of 30,000 talented, hard working individuals to receive an email that would upend many of our lives as we knew it - they were being layed off through no fault of their own, and, in David's case, in spite of his stellar performance in the short time he had been there.

This was the beginning of a lot of soul searching, and in many ways, was a return to our center. While we weren't yet sure what the next steps were on DKs career path, what we did know was that he now had a LOT of extra time on his hands between researching and applying for jobs. So, we began seeking out opportunities to serve the community in ways we hadn't been able to for years because of his demanding work schedules. We've always believed that what you focus on is what you'll find and the opportunities quickly came flooding in. We committed to only taking on what we could reasonably do with the limited resources we had available to us without any income coming in. One thing we had: A really solid lawn mower and able bodies. So when I (Shannon) saw a post in a local Facebook group about a woman with very limited resources and a host of medical & mobility issues who was about to be evicted because of her overgrown grass, I sent a screen shot to DK and within 2 days, he'd coordinated with her to get her lawn sorted out. She offered him her last $10 for the work, which he did not hesitate to decline; He has now been cutting her grass consistently for months.

Turns out, she wasn't the only person in Hampton who needed this type of support, so since April, he has joyfully cared for the yards of several residents with unique stories from financial hardship to physical limitations to a lack of local familial support and so on. And each time, he has refused payment. This service has created some beautiful opportunities to serve in other ways - one of his "clients" was also struggling with food insecurity, so we were able to deliver food to them from a church pantry a few minutes from them. Recently, he was able to clean out a single mom’s gutters and while he was there, her neighbor asked if he could help her as well (and so he did). Through this service, he has been able to hear about each of their perspectives and struggles and it has only deepened our desire to serve this community.

Something else has started to happen... Folks have been hearing about what he's doing and offering him money to support the work he's doing and to this point, he has continued to refuse. But then - we recently had to pay nearly $1,000 to repair our riding mower and he had to turn down a support request because the yard was too big to cut with our push mower and we don't have a trailer to haul our newly repaired mower with. Normally, we would just invest in a trailer ourselves, but with the lack of income we are still experiencing, that is not something we can afford to do. That's when we realized that by continuing to refuse money from people who are happy to support his work supporting others in the community who truly need that support, we are actually doing a disservice to the community because we are limiting our ability to serve at the highest capacity.

That's where we are now. As you may or may not have known before landing here, Angry Ants Community Chest was formed in early 2025 as a vehicle to serve the communities of our board members who are experiencing personal hardship. Lawn care was not something that was anywhere on our radar at the time, but after bringing this to the board, we realized there was a real opportunity here to serve populations who are often forgotten about - the widows, the spouses of deployed service members, the elderly, the disabled - all in addition to/alongside the financially downtrodden. The vote was immediate and unanimous - we would create a campaign through the Community Chest to allow those who are able and feel called to contribute to supporting their neighbors with lawn care services at no cost to them.

Money donated to this campaign will go directly to costs associated with DKs work supporting our neighbors in Hampton, GA with their lawn care needs so that he can continue doing this work without charging the people who are already having a hard time. This will allow us to remove a burden from our neighbors without creating additional burdens on our family during this season of transition.

Because Angry Ants Community Chest is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, you can count on a handful of things:

1) There will be significant oversight and stewardship of the funds that land here.

2) Your donations will be eligible tax deductible expenses - Giving through this campaign means you'll receive an immediate tax receipt to your email.

3) No profit will be made from this campaign. Any funds above and beyond the expenses listed below will remain in the campaign account for later use.

Additionally, we commit to providing regular updates to campaign donors to keep them in the loop about where your money is going/has gone.

If you are able, we would greatly appreciate your support in the form of a one-time or recurring monthly donation. Recurring donations help us make more informed decisions about what we can say "yes" to ahead of time.

Right now, here are the costs associated with the lawn care service that we know about:

Gas for the riding mower (~$30/tank)
Trailer - we are researching used trailers, but we think we should be able to source one for less than $500 - we're also open to "in kind" gifts if anyone is looking to part with their trailer; Angry Ants can write you a gift receipt for the value of the trailer
Weed eater line (~$20)
Heavy duty backup batteries for the push mower & weed eater (~$200 each)
Backup battery charger (~$350)
Labor - This will be a future wish list item if donations go above and beyond the needs listed above, but it would be great if eventually DK could be paid for his labor - We would max this out at $50/hr (the going hourly rate for lawn care is $35-70/hr, so we want to stick to the lower-mid range if we do ever get to this point)

DK Lawn Care Support for Hampton, GA Residents in Need

Help support your neighbors with their lawn care needs!