A business launched by Naperville North athletes helps “tackle” and “field” projects, assisting homeowners in the process. Neighborly Needs was founded in 2024 by four Huskie student-athletes, now two current seniors and graduates, as a way to employ teens and provide helpful services. This story is sponsored by Fair Oaks Ford and Fair Oaks Lincoln.
“We help facilitate, organize, and complete jobs around the Naperville community, and we’re doing that through our network of teens at North who want to work these flexible opportunities to make that extra money, and learn great skills. It’s been great because we’ve been able to complete over 530 jobs and reach over 150 clients in the Naperville area,” said Neighborly Needs co-founder Will Harvey.
Current and previous Huskies take on jobs like lawn mowing, raking leaves, shoveling snow, or moving furniture around the house. The idea for the business got its start thanks to an in-school project.
“We were in a business incubator class at North. We were thinking of possible ideas that we could do, and we had some other ideas for our business, but we came to the decision that we wanted to do a service business and help out our community,” said Harvey.
A busy winter leads to new heights
They got to work, starting with leaf raking in the fall of 2024. The snowy winter that followed offered plenty of shoveling jobs, helping the business find its stride.
“After that first winter, the spring season picked up, and we started getting a lot of jobs, getting booked out. The calendar was filling up, people are visiting our website, giving us calls, and it’s just really exciting to see it come from there, all the way to where we are now, where we’re constantly booked out. We also have another crew doing other jobs around the Naperville area. So it’s been really great just to see it grow,” said co-founder Aiden Lezza.
Help from a mentor
A recent job found them working for a previous advisor who’d helped them get their start.
“When they first started back two years ago, I worked on the entrepreneurship program at Naperville North, and I was mentoring this group regarding setting up the business. We talked about goals and objectives, technology regarding how to make this work, and making it more streamlined for them. Their goal is to be the Uber of the service industry. So it’s a great thing that they’re doing, they’re doing a great job and great work,” said homeowner Tom Hasse.
Neighborly Needs has recruited over fifty students from Naperville North, with the hopes of setting them up for success.
“We are helping these kids learn very great skills. Like when they’re future homeowners or whatnot. This will help them in the future as well as give them hardworking skills, communication skills. They are out in the neighborhood helping complete jobs for elderly people, and we’ve had great compliments saying this kid so-and-so, they did an amazing job, and I’d love to have them help again,” said Lezza.
Neighborly Needs is hoping to grow beyond Naperville
The jobs run year-round, and as the organization grows, they hope to take their neighborly expertise beyond Naperville.
“There’s no ceiling on what we can do or what we can accomplish. This is something that could be international at some point; there’s no cap on it. We just want to continue to see it grow within the Naperville community, but then start going outwards a little bit,” said Harvey.
Raking up a neighborly network while lending a hand.