HIGHLAND, MI (WXYZ) — Brayden Spencer of Highland was determined to play football this year. But in order to do so—there was a catch.
“My mom said that I have to work to get the money to do it.”
Brayden has three other siblings, and while his parents encourage his interest in football, adding it to his list of sports wasn’t really in the budget.
“Football is way more expensive than any other sport and I have a total of four kids," Brayden's mom Breanna Richards said.
So together, Brayden and his mom came up with a plan.
“We were talking and I was like you know, well maybe you could do like some little side job, something small around our community like helping clean up and yard works and things like that,” Richards said.
So that’s exactly what the two agreed on. Brayden's mom took to Facebook to solicit customers.
“When I posted it, I did not expect to get the response that we did," Richards said. “He has like a two-week schedule of all the jobs he’s doing."
From lawn care work to garden work and bottle collection duty, Brayden’s afternoons are now spent outdoors.
“It's fun but, it's hard,” Brayden said.
Brayden's mom says Brayden is basically running a mini-business. He's already recruited his siblings to help him with the work.
“So it's been a lot for him," Richards says.
But hard work pays off because Brayden has already raised enough money to join the football team.
“I'm gonna be doing lots of jobs,” he said.
And his work won’t stop there! With his extra money and work, Brayden is hoping to sponsor another student who wants to join the football team.
"We almost have enough to sponsor one kid right now. And then they're going to continue to do the jobs throughout the summer because my daughter, she wants to play volleyball. My other one wants to do dance. And we figured once we're able to sponsor another kid then we can break it up."
Brayden will be accepting bottle donations to help raise money for the other student. He and his siblings will also be booking other jobs through his mom's Facebook page. To help Brayden and their siblings out on their mission, click here.
