DETROIT – A group of boys from Detroit, some as young as 10 years old, banded together six years ago to form what would become Quarter Quts LLC.
Vaughn Arrington, who runs a marketing company, stepped in to buy them a commercial property on East Seven Mile Road to store all their equipment. Over the last six years, it has been broken into three times.
This time, thieves took off with 20 lawnmowers, 10 weed whackers, assorted lawn and snow equipment as well as the water heater and furnace.
“I think the worst pain of it all was to tell the kids their stuff was gone,” Arrington said.
When they were first robbed five years ago, then-12-year-old Adonnis Brooks, a founding member, casually referred to Quarter Quts as his building and his company with pride.
Adonnis is 17 years old now and someone who the younger boys look up to.
“I just tell them to keep their heads up, don’t stop,” he said.
His good friend Davontae Chandler -- a year older -- is ready to graduate from high school and is heading to college with the lessons he learned about starting a business and maintaining it.
“Everyone knows we do a top quality job. We don’t leave until the job is done and the customer is satisfied,” Davontae said.
Arrington has started a GoFundMe account for the group to try and raise funds to replace all of the equipment.
Even though the property was well locked, Arrington thinks they’ll need to enroll in Project Greenlight. He helped the boys set up their business because he understood this was always going to be about more than making money from cutting grass.
“They can see a tomorrow that has nothing to do with the abandoned house, the crime they are victims of. They can see a tomorrow with us and that’s more important than the lawnmowers that’s what was taken from them,” he said.
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