Well-known charity donates to an animal shelter in Billings

Billings, Montana – On Thursday evening, a non-profit organization named “A Future Superhero and Friends” stopped at an animal shelter in Billings as part of their Hope for the Holidays 50 state tour. Before the holidays, the trip seeks to assist the elderly, children, veterans, homeless communities, and animals.

Due to their extensive philanthropic activity, the tour’s creators, Yuri Williams and Rodney Smith Jr., have been referred to as two real-life superheroes on numerous occasions. At their seventeenth stop on the trip, they went to Montana, where they paid for the adoption of five animals and gave the Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter roughly twenty bags of dog and cat food.

In 2009, Williams’ mother passed away from cancer after a five-year battle. He founded ‘A Future Superhero and Friends’ to assist fight depression. Williams claims that working on this kind of project has greatly improved his mental health.

“It’s a super-power energy that I feel,” Williams said. “It gets me to go on to the next day because I don’t want to go back to that dark tunnel where I was for that five years because I almost felt like I lost myself.”

Smith Jr. has experience volunteering as well. He helped an older man who was having trouble mowing his lawn in 2015, which inspired him to create his non-profit organization, Raising Men and Women Lawn Care. He started off mowing lawns for free, eventually making many trips to all 50 states and helping to maintain the lawns of the elderly, disabled, single parents, and veterans. With his 50 Yards Challenge, which asks children to mow 50 yards for those in need, hundreds of people around the nation have already joined him in taking up the cause.

“It’s helping people, and especially the kids. Yuri does a lot of work with the kids and my organization also helps mentor the kids and they take part in our 50 Yards Challenge. But it’s important to take care of those that need the help,” says Smith Jr.

Williams saw that he had discovered the ideal collaborator when he observed Smith Jr.’s success. Although their organizations are distinct, their purposes and ultimate goals are the same.

“I was just texting him like crazy and I know he was probably thinking I was a madman, but it was just something that I saw him doing that was very impressive that I was doing as well. I was like, maybe we should team up, and do the 50 states tour together,” recalls Williams.

Now in its fifth year, Smith Jr. is on his 17th statewide tour with Future Superhero and Friends. Williams and Smith Jr. dress up as superheroes and Santa’s elves, respectively, every year. Williams adopted the Spider-Man persona of Miles Morales for this tour.

“The parents seem more excited than the kids sometimes because it brings you back to your childhood. Just seeing these kids smile and their parents smile for that 15, 10 minutes that I’m there, that’s what it’s about,” says Williams.

Throughout their travels, both men have created innumerable memories; they have even had the opportunity to return to some of the same families annually. Smith Jr. told a tale that stayed in his memory from their first trip about a young boy they met named David.

“There was one young man by the name of David we met on our first tour together and he had something called DIPG, which is a terminal brain tumor,” Smith Jr. said. “And sadly, he passed away, I think, two years ago or so. Every 50 states tour that Yuri and I did together, we got a chance to go see David and I even did a 50 states tour for childhood cancer to raise awareness, and I got to see David one last time with that tour. I think a month later, he passed away. What our organizations do, they go hand-in-hand.”

Although they both put in a great deal of time and effort into these initiatives, they both agree that the results are quite satisfying.

“Every day I get to wake up and do what I love. It’s not working, it’s not hard, I just get to do what I love, and I can’t go wrong with that,” says Smith Jr.

And some furry companions in need in Billings will feel that love. The adoption costs included a dog, a reptile, two cats, and a bunny. Although the lizard and dog have found permanent homes as of this Saturday, you can learn more about them by visiting the shelter’s website, yvas.org.

Visit Smith Jr.’s website at weareraisingmen.com and Williams’ website at afuturesuperhero.com to learn more about the Hope for the Holidays cause and make a donation.