Quarter Quts Teaches Young People Entrepreneurial Skills Through Landscaping

Quarter Quts, a landscaping and lawn care company run by young people, originated in 2010, when two friends, Adonnis Brooks, Sarah Collard, and I started a program to teach kids purposeful work and entrepreneurial skills. What began as a simple landscaping team quickly evolved into a full-fledged youth entrepreneurship class.

Participants are trained in a variety of skills including opening and balancing a checking account, pricing jobs accurately, engaging professionally with clients, drafting contracts, quotes, and invoices, and building and administering performance surveys.

Our clients are primarily eastside Detroit residents and businesses, but we’ve also served homes and organizations throughout Detroit, Southfield, Ferndale, Warren, Grosse Pointe, Hazel Park, and beyond. Services include lawn care, bush hedging, garden bed installation, bush and tree removal, painting, and snow removal. In winter months, we offer snow removal (driveways, sidewalks, salting) and alternative services such as holiday light installation, gutter cleaning, and minor painting projects. We’re eager to partner with Morningside Community Organization and explore how Quarter Quts can support our youth initiatives.

Since 2010, Quarter Quts has engaged between 50 and 70 young people, ranging in age from 7 to 23, with mentoring across generations and sustained involvement. The students manage day-to-day operations, with advisory support from Sarah Collard and me. I provide transportation—either with my vehicle or a rented truck and trailer—to ensure they can reach every job site.

My company, Human Fliers, has been the primary funder of Quarter Quts since its inception. From 2010 to 2013, we rented space to run our classes; after that, we purchased our own building in the Red Zone (13431 East 7 Mile Road), where we continued to teach youth entrepreneurship through hands-on landscaping projects.

We’ve had our share of challenges, including three break-ins at our center, during which thieves stole our furnace and all of our equipment. The center has been closed since COVID-19 rendered the facility unusable. To protect our tools, we now store everything at a more secure location.

We assess success by testing each participant’s ability to create financial projections, develop marketing plans, engage and retain clients, and operate equipment safely and efficiently. Our data show improved outcomes in each of these areas year over year.

Probably the best way to demonstrate the success of our mission is through one young man’s story.

When DaVontae Chandler first stepped into Quarter Quts at age eleven, he was drawn by two powerful desires: “mentorship from Vaughn” and “to be a boss…to work for myself.” Growing up without a father in the home, DaVontae longed for a steady presence he could look up to—and a way to change his poverty-stricken upbringing.

From his very first days of Quarter Quts, he discovered that hard work could be fun, and that earning a dollar meant more than just covering bills; it was the first step toward independence.

Within months, DaVontae’s natural leadership surfaced. He wasn’t content simply cutting grass—he wanted to understand the numbers behind each job. He dove into pricing estimates, bank-account balancing, and client invoicing. By age fourteen, he’d earned the title of Vice President of Quarter Quts, overseeing the financial exchanges and managing the books. Behind the scenes, DaVontae carried wounds far deeper than calluses from mower handles. As a child, he endured physical abuse at home and the emotional scars of an absent—and ultimately incarcerated—father.

I recognized the toll it was taking: DaVontae’s behavior at school grew erratic, suspensions piling up as he struggled to navigate the pain he had no words for. After a difficult conversation with DaVontae’s mother, I began visiting Davis Aerospace Academy, advocating for personalized support and ensuring DaVontae’s educators understood his challenges. Slowly, the combination of mentorship and targeted school support began to shift DaVontae’s path.

Yet life’s dangers didn’t end at the school door. One afternoon, as I dropped DaVontae off at his Alter Road/Kercheval apartment near Morningside, we passed by an alley where snow and ice were stained with blood —the remnants of a tragedy that had unfolded just hours before. I realized that without a stable home environment, DaVontae’s future was still at risk.

In the following year, DaVontae moved in with a cousin on Three Mile Drive. For a time, it looked like a fresh start—until a news report revealed that DaVontae’s three-yearold cousin had been shot in the living room of his new home. DaVontae’s refuge had become another site of violence.

Shortly thereafter, I welcomed DaVontae into my under-construction home on Haverhill. It was there, in a house filled with tools and drywall dust, that DaVontae began to heal and refocus on his ambitions. Under my continued guidance, he channeled his experiences into an unshakeable vision: “I don’t want to be a worker; I want to be a CEO. I want to be stable.”

Today, DaVontae is on the path to earning his MBA at Central Michigan University, and he’s poised to chair Quarter Quts’ non-profit arm - “helping youth own their own companies, teaching each other about finances… mentoring as many kids as possible.” His transformation from a boy seeking a father figure and a paycheck, to a young leader determined to light the way for others, is the embodiment of Quarter Quts’ mission: we’re not just shaping lawns; we’re shaping lives.