MONTICELLO, Maine – A previously homeless 16-year-old, who recently started his own business, will do the rugged jobs like stacking wood, tilling gardens, cleaning out the garage or basement, scrubbing floors, defrosting the freezer or even cleaning the dreaded oven.
Last year, Jackson Boutilier and his family ended up living for 29 days on the second floor of the Presque Isle homeless shelter after a string of life events they never imagined possible led them there.
It was during this difficult time that Jackson wanted to try and earn a little extra money, his mom, Krista Boutilier said.
The Monticello teen, who is home schooled, decided to pick up some odd jobs before making his business official. But after the calls kept coming, “Jackson’s Hustle and Muscle” was born, he said.
“It’s amazing there are kids with this [kind of] work ethic out there still,” said his dad, Mark Boutilier. “He’s a go-getter.”
Research shows that the majority of American teens prefer starting a business over working in typical teen jobs such as fast food or babysitting. But unlike Jackson, most under-18 entrepreneurs are interested in less strenuous digital ventures like online selling or creating digital content, according to digital commerce platform Whop.
For Jackson, it’s all about the brawn and his love of manual labor. He’s willing to do the heavy lifting — the “jobs you don’t feel like doing”— whether it’s inside or out.
“From yard work to heavy lifting to indoor chores and outdoor chaos,” he said. “ I bring the hustle, the muscle and a work ethic that doesn’t quit.”
Jackson started out helping Krista’s mom stack her wood. Then last year he worked for a man in Presque Isle who took him under his wing, Krista said.
With his first job, Jackson completed a long list of tasks; taking wood apart, painting doors, raking the lawn. But he got the jobs done so fast, the man in Presque Isle started paying him more, his mom said.
“He said, ‘I can’t pay you just $15 for what you just did,’” she said. “He started paying him by the job.”
On Thursday afternoon, Jackson’s phone was dinging over and over with texts from Mainers looking for help with those particularly nasty jobs. He looked over at his Mom.
“It’s another one,” he said. “I never expected this.”
Houlton resident Greg Koester, who hired Jackson to do a job this Friday, told the BDN he was impressed that a young man was taking the initiative to go find himself work.
“I don’t see that very often,” Koester said. “I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, but I don’t see it.”
In the past week, a Presque Isle contractor offered him a job pouring concrete, potential customers have asked for quotes on building sheds or outbuildings and someone even wanted him to put on a new roof, he said.
For now, those jobs are a bit out of his range, but he’s sure hoping to learn as he goes along, he said.
Mark and Krista owned their Houlton home for 24 years and their babies – Jackson and his older brother Tyler – were born there. But over the years, as the house needed more and more repairs, credit card debt grew. And the pressures of working 14 years as a paramedic took a toll on Mark.
He lost his job and eventually the house went into foreclosure, Krista said.
Over the years, Mark said he’d hear about alcoholics, but didn’t really think about it much. When it happened to him, he didn’t know when he crossed the line from being a casual drinker to having a substance problem, he said.
Following inpatient treatment, he’s been sober for nearly 600 days, he said.
When they had to move out of their home, the family needed to find a handicapped accessible rental because Krista is disabled, but nothing was available.
Eventually, the family moved into an old restaurant in Benedicta, still packed with tables and chairs the landlord said he would remove. But he never did. The furnace would quit, the water source froze, they had no running water sometimes for weeks and there were no functioning appliances, not to mention a $600 electric bill, they said.
So, they stopped paying rent and again had to try and find housing. That’s when they lived at the Presque Isle Hotel for four months at about $1,500 a month.
Even though Mark worked long hours at a Presque Isle convenience store, his salary wasn’t enough. There was no affordable housing and they were forced to live at the homeless shelter.
It was humiliating, said Mark.
It was especially hard on Krista who had to sleep in her wheelchair and because of shelter rules, had problems accessing her medications that were kept on the first floor, she said.
“I went days without my medicine. I gained about 70 pounds in fluid,” Krista said.
Two or three days after they left the shelter she was in the intensive care unit in Bangor with heart and respiratory failure, she said.
Krista found the family a handicapped accessible apartment in Monticello, a small Aroostook town north of Houlton. With the help of many generous neighbors and others in the community, they are settled into their home along with their two cats and a homeless teen they invited to live with them.
“I believe God puts us where we are supposed to be and he just removed us from that situation and we had to go through some trials to get to here,” she said. “But now I feel we get to be a blessing to somebody else that needs a place to stay.”
And it is that family bond that has pushed Jackson to do the best he can in all that he does, he said.
In addition to building his business, Jackson helps out at home, cleaning and caring for his mom.
His first priority is to earn enough to pay for the required $600 driver’s education course so he can get a driver’s license and hopefully purchase a pick-up truck and his own tools for his business, he said.
His ultimate dream? A muscle car.
“Either a navy blue or a ‘murdered out’ black Dodge Hellcat,” Jackson said.
