JR's 50 Yard Challenge - Helping Veterans, Elderly, Reduced Mobility

01/25/2024

Good Evening Everyone!! Tomorrow is JR and Emily's Swim-A-Thon. Cindy Pyle-Achterhoff and I wanted to reach out one last time to see if anyone would like to help sponsor them. Donations per lap or flat donations are much appreciated!! Last year JR swam 97 laps and Emily swam about 25.

Thank you all so much for your support!!

05/30/2022

Good Afternoon and Happy Memorial Day!! We hope everyone had a safe off season from mowing and are enjoying this beautiful long weekend.

As school and soccer draw to a close JR is very interested in mowing again this summer. He would love to help those in need again but also would like to have a few regular lawns he can mow for an agreed upon fee to help off set the costs of mowing, especially with the high gas prices this year. Last year we were extremely blessed with donations from around the area, the country and as far away as Japan!!

Please reach out if you are interested in having your lawn mowed by an eager 9 year old or if you or someone you know needs help this summer.

All the best,

JR Achterhoff

01/31/2022

Good Afternoon World, I hope this message finds each and every one of you doing well. Our apologies for being so quiet the last few weeks, we have been on the go more than ever before. Unfortunately JR's Birthday, Christmas and New Years were all much different this year due to all of us having COVID. Thankfully our symptoms overall were mild and everyone is doing well. This past weekend JR and his sister Emily participated in a 2 day swim competition. Both of them swam fantastic, we are so proud of JR and Emily. JR swam 7 races! He took home 4- 1st place, 1- 3rd place, and 2- 5th place. He even swam 2 new races double the distance than before and rocked them! His younger sister Emily swam 2 races and dropped 7.6 seconds on her 25 back stroke and 15.12 seconds on her 25 freestyle. They both did great!

The swimming is the reason for our message today. Both JR and Emily will be participating in Swim-A-Thon to help raise funds for the swim team. If anyone is interested in helping to sponsor JR or Emily with a set amount or a pledge per lap it would be fantastic! The coaches are thinking JR should be able to swim somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 laps. I am guessing Emily may only be able to swim about 10.

Thank you for your consideration and have a fantastic day!

All the best,
John & Cindy

10/19/2021

Good Evening Everyone,

Sorry we have been quite the last few weeks. With school and soccer in full swing we have not been mowing very much, however JR is up to 53 yards now :-)

Last week we received a very unexpected call from the City of North Muskegon regarding all of JR's hard work. We were informed JR was being honored by the City for his completion of the 50 Yard Challenge. Tonight JR (with some moral support from Dad) received his award. WOW!! WHAT AN HONOR!! We are so blessed to have been able to participate in this amazing program and live in such a loving and supportive community. Thank you to the City of North Muskegon for taking time at your City Council meeting for us tonight. Cindy Pyle-Achterhoff and I (John Achterhoff ) could not be more proud of you JR.

09/15/2021

A HUGE thank you to MLive for helping get the word out about JR's mission early on in his quest to 50 yards. The 1st story by Rose White quickly lead to additional stories by Fox 17, WZZM, Epoch Times, dozens, maybe hundreds of other news sources picking up the story leading to THOUSANDS of comments of support. The story run by Julie Dunmire at Fox 17 was picked up by CNN and distributed at least around the country and we are pretty sure around the world as letters from as far away as Japan came in. Calls, texts and comments from Florida, Boston, Washington, Europe, Malaysia, Vietnam and so on have all been recieved. We (Cindy Pyle-Achterhoff and I, John Achterhoff ) never imagined it would go this far. Offers of equipment from local community members and company from other states, offers of financial support, random checks and PayPal deposits came in from all over the country. We have been blessed with an amazing and incredible son and you have all been a blessing to him with your outrageous generosity. There are good people in the world and we were blessed enough to be touched by hundreds, perhaps thousands of you. Thank you all for your amazing support.

A Muskegon County boy who spent two months mowing lawns for free plans to keep helping people who need help.

09/12/2021

Good Evening Everyone, JR has a video to share with all of you :-)

09/06/2021

Happy Labor Day everyone!! We hope you are having a great day and a relaxing weekend. We were able to get 2 more done today raising the count to 6 for the weekend and 47 yards done. Be sure to watch the Fox 17 News this evening at 5:00 PM, Julie Dunmire was back out again today to check up on us :-)

47 yards down, 3 to go. Please keep those names coming 🙏 Cindy Pyle-Achterhoff and I continue to be so proud of JR and so thankful for all your amazing support!!

09/05/2021

You guys, this kid is CRUSHING it today. 4 yards down today raising the count to 45 yards done!! We have 2 more lined up for tomorrow and need at least 3 more. We are SOOOOOO close. We do not plan to stop at 50, if more people reach out we will definitely help them too!! Cindy Pyle-Achterhoff and I are so proud of you JR.

Big thank you to Occidental Eats in downtown Muskegon for allowing us to post a flyer to be able to keep helping those in need making a difference one yard at a time.

09/03/2021

Happy Friday everyone!! We are back in the game wrapping up the 2 BIGGEST challenges we have had yet. Not the biggest yards, but neither had been mowed in at least a 1 year. JR did a fantastic job and even said, "That was really pretty easy!!" We are now at 41 yards and JR is in his last shirt before he gets his black shirt at 50!!

Both of these yards were for retired and disabled veterans. #41 had a bare flag pole that JR thought we should fix up too. Thank you Cindy Pyle-Achterhoff for bringing out a new flag, rope and clips to hang the flag.