Carol’s Calling in Westfield, Indiana, all started in 2019 after the Bieda family had gone through a few very trying years. Carol Bieda passed away after a several-year battle with cancer. During that same timeframe, Kyle and Katie Bieda, Carol’s son and daughter-in-law, had an infant son who was undergoing treatment for leukemia.
“To get through it all, we needed a support system around us,” Kyle relates. “We needed a lot of help for many years. That’s where I got the idea for Carol’s Calling.”
Carol’s Calling is a 501c3 non-profit that provides lawn services to people going through a challenging time that makes it difficult to keep up with all of life’s routine tasks.
“Kyle and Katie actually presented the idea to me on my birthday in January 2020,” says Frank Bieda, Kyle’s father. “The whole concept is a memorial to my wife.”
The original plan was to offer lawn care, laundry and meals. Kyle would handle the lawn care. Frank loves to cook and would handle the meals. Katie would take care of the laundry. Ultimately, the Biedas decided to focus on just lawn care.
Katie, Kyle, and Frank Bieda of Carol’s Calling in Westfield, Indiana
“We realized that this idea could actually grow some legs,” Kyle says.
“Dad is retired, but I still work. Katie is a busy stay-at-home mom with our three young kids. We had to be realistic with our expectation.”
“Plus, lawn care is something Kyle really enjoys doing,” Katie adds. “Even before Carol’s Calling came about, Kyle was always eager to help neighbors with their lawn mowing.”
Prelude to a Passion
Kyle’s career as an IT professional keeps him glued to a computer screen in an office. That’s why he likes to find hobbies that take him outside. Back in high school, one of the part-time jobs Kyle had was in lawn care. “I knew from experience that I really enjoyed that type of work,” Kyle says.
The only problem was that mowing his own lawn wouldn’t fully scratch Kyle’s itch to get outside. He either needed a much bigger lawn, or more lawns. Then he got an idea while listening to a sermon in church. The pastor was talking about helping orphans. Kyle thought about a widow he knew who had two young children. Katie’s dad borrowed a riding mower for Kyle so he could start mowing this widow’s lawn.
Before long, Kyle thought of a second family he could help. That young couple just had a baby. Kyle recognized that their increasingly hectic life was preventing them from mowing their lawn as often as they should. Then another customer came along when the husband injured his back, and the wife was struggling to run their mower.
“The next thing you know, I was helping take care of nine lawns,” Kyle says. “It all started organically right around our house. Then we started talking and realized we could do this for a lot of people who live outside of our neighborhood. That’s when we started the process of making it an official non-profit that we would actually promote.”
Over the past few years, Carol’s Calling has mowed lawns as far as an hour away. Most of their “customers” come by way of referral. All of their income comes by way of donations, all of which is allocated to paying off their equipment and other operating costs. Carol’s Calling has a nice website, CarolsCalling.org, where people can request service or nominate others. “Social media has also been big, especially Next Door,” Kyle says. “We also get a lot of word of mouth through church groups.”
Kyle Bieda mows the property of a family going through a challenging time.
Most of Carol’s Calling’s customers aren’t regular customers; they just need a mow or two to get through a difficult period. But the Biedas do have one regular customer who is very special to them.
“She’s a single woman who is a foster mom to teenage mothers,” Katie tells. “So she has multiple teenage girls and their daughters in her home.”
“She works as a nurse at the children’s hospital where our son received his treatment for leukemia,” Kyle adds. “That’s where we got to know her and realized she needed support, too.”
It Doesn’t Take Much to Make a Huge Impact
Shortly after making Carol’s Calling official in January 2020, Kyle started researching equipment. He stumbled upon some YouTube videos showing the Walker Mower. Kyle immediately recognized the benefits of the machine’s versatility and productivity. He went straight from YouTube to Walker’s online dealer locator.
“We met with Marc Wray from Wray’s Walkers in April 2020,” Kyle recalls. “Marc and another gentleman brought a trailer with several mowers for us to demo,” Frank adds.
When Kyle and Frank learned more about the Walker’s capabilities, they knew it was what they needed.
“In the fall time, I could envision having to rake and bag leaves for six hours on some properties,” Kyle says. “Then I started to think about shoveling snow in the winter. I was looking at a mower that could do all of those things. If we bought a Walker,
we could make the most amount of impact with the least amount of equipment.”
Their first purchase was a Model C. The grass-catching capability was a key factor in that selection.
“We knew we’d be mowing a lot of lawns that probably hadn’t been mowed in a while,” Kyle says. Discharging wouldn’t be a good option with grass that long. Plus, Kyle and Frank didn’t want to just go onto properties to knock the grass down. Part of their mission to “help the hurting” was to bring a little joy to a person’s life by making their lawn look like a professional had mowed it.
“We’re representing the Gospel, and we want these lawns to look their best,” Frank says.
Building a Legacy, One Lawn at a Time
With a couple of seasons now under their belts, Kyle and Frank have settled into a pretty good rhythm. Kyle handles the mowing, while Frank tackles the trimming and edging.
“I’m in the middle of a three-year apprenticeship with the trimmer before I get to start learning the Walker,” Frank says with a grin.
“I ask you all the time if you’d like to try it,” Kyle is quick to chime in.
“But getting you out of the seat of the Walker isn’t easy,” Frank replies with an even bigger smile.
That sounds like a pretty credible statement coming from Frank. Kyle has accumulated roughly 100 hours of seat time on his Walker over the past few years. He runs it like a professional who racks up 100 hours a month, though. You can see how much Kyle enjoys it when he zips around trees and smoothly makes his zero-turns at the end of long passes. Kyle now runs a Model T27i after trading in their original Model C in early 2023. “After being asked to mow some larger properties, we realized we needed more power and a bigger catcher,” Kyle says.
While Kyle is out mowing lawns, Katie is home taking care of their two sons, Micah (leukemia survivor) and Levi, and their youngest child and daughter, Julia. “Katie has really become the marketing director of Carol’s Calling, too,” Kyle says. “She helps with the social media, and also sends out brochures and thank you cards when we mow lawns and receive donations.”
“I have one other really important job,” Katie is quick to add. Kyle parks the trailer and mower in their garage. It’s a tight fit. Kyle backs the trailer up to the garage door. Once it’s all lined up, he disconnects from the truck. Katie then helps Kyle push the trailer into position in the garage. “My giant muscles really help out here,” Katie sarcastically says while striking a double-bicep pose.
The Model T just barely fits on their nine-foot trailer. Kyle lays a 2x4 down so he knows just when to stop so as not to hit the rail.
In addition to their new Walker Model T and nine-foot trailer, Carol’s Calling owns a 2008 pickup truck, along with some Stihl handheld equipment. The equipment fleet also includes a 48- inch Walker collection deck, 42-inch mulching deck, and 52-inch side-discharge deck. “Now we’re looking at getting the implement hitch, and either a snowblower or blade,” Kyle says.
Kyle’s even bigger dream is to one day get a second Walker, a Model B, so he and Frank can each mow while Micah and Levi take over the trimming and edging. At 9 and 10, they’re still a little young and small to run most of the equipment. “They will tag along to jobsites once in a while and use the blower,” Katie points out. “It’s great, because we want this to be a real legacy of going out and serving people.”
The legacy is already well underway, and is definitely worthy of having Carol’s name on it.
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