Sometime around mid-November, Packers rookie wide receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling began splitting his time between football during the day and helping the less fortunate at night. He was 11 months removed from organizing his first homeless drive in St. Petersburg, Fla., where Marquez was raised, and he wanted the event to become an annual tradition, even if it meant planning everything from an apartment in Green Bay.

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So Marquez and his parents, Marcellus and Tahisia Scantling, held conference calls every few days to sort through details for this year’s contribution, and Tahisia met with city officials in St. Petersburg for recommendations about which organizations to partner with.

They set a goal of stuffing 200 duffel bags with blankets, clothing, toiletries, bottled water and other essential items to distribute among the homeless population in their hometown. They also wanted to feed 200 people and find a way to offer free haircuts for anyone in need of a trim. They scheduled the event for 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Christmas Day, roughly 48 hours after the Packers play the Jets in New Jersey. (Info on how to donate to Marquez’s homeless drive can be found here.)

An undertaking of that size required significant planning, a fact made difficult by the geographical distance between Marquez and his parents, who still live in St. Petersburg. A year ago, while Marquez was a senior at the nearby University of South Florida, his first homeless drive filled between 60 and 80 duffel bags packed assembly line-style in the family’s living room. Then they drove to an area frequented by homeless people and dispensed the bags from the back of Marcellus’ pickup truck.

This year, though, Marquez envisioned something larger and more impactful, something that inched him closer to his ultimate goal of opening a transitional living facility for people needing to get back on their feet. He believed his platform with the Packers could help expand his reach, especially after the outpouring of support he received on social media last year. The only question was whether Marquez’s schedule would limit his participation.

“We just asked him: ‘Do you want us to put it together and you want to approve it, or do you want to be involved step by step,’” Marcellus said. “He wanted to be involved step by step.”

It’s time to give back, holidays are coming up and I’d love your help to supply some of the homeless community with essential items they need for the winter. Anything helps.
Thank you, God Bless and happy holidays.
Please ship all items to the PO Box attached to the flyer.

— Marquez V-S (@MVS__11) November 24, 2018

What differentiates Marquez’s endeavor from some of the charitable efforts by other athletes is an ethos for giving that has been passed down through his family. Marquez learned the importance of volunteering from his mother and father, who involved their three sons in Habitat for Humanity, the American Heart Association’s annual Heart Walk and numerous activities through Metropolitan Ministries from an early age. Marcellus absorbed those same lessons from his mother, Mila Holmes, who brought her children to nursing homes to spend time with patients scarce on visitors. And Holmes followed the example set forth by her mother, Eva Ruffin, who was known for giving money to strangers in the street.

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Marquez was already giving back to the community long before he earned a scholarship, became a fifth-round pick in the NFL Draft or secured his first pro touchdown pass. For his efforts, and those of his family members, equal parts admirable and organic, he is The Athletic Wisconsin’s 2018 Person of the Year.

“I was fortunate enough to have nice things growing up,” Marquez said, “and my parents did a good job of teaching me the value of a dollar and respecting the things that you do have because everyone doesn’t have it. So I was always fortunate enough to understand that, you know, people are in bad situations. That was always big for me.”

Yet there are also times when people in adverse situations still find ways to help the people around them, something that happened quite frequently with Ruffin, who was Marquez’s great-grandmother. There were prolonged stretches in which Ruffin lived on a meager income because she rarely worked due to illness, according to Holmes, her daughter. During those lulls, several members of the family pooled their money to lessen the financial burden. Ruffin turned around and gave some of that money to children or patients in hospitals who needed it more than she did.

Holmes remembered that lesson while raising her family in Louisiana. She routinely invited new members of the church to her house for dinner and distributed hot meals around the holidays. She put together gift baskets for patients in nursing homes and then brought her children, including Marcellus, to distribute them and sing to elderly residents. She purchased small Christmas trees to brighten the rooms at a hospital where she worked as a respiratory therapist. She collected money for co-workers who experienced deaths in the family. And now, having recently retired in St. Petersburg, she serves as a board member for the local chapter of the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America and as president of the Women of Strength, a support group she founded for women of all ages. Women of Strength distributes a pair of scholarships each year to C-level students fighting for their educational foothold.

“As a Christian, to me, it’s always better to be on the giving end than the receiving end,” Holmes said. “And that’s what I’ve been doing ever since I became an adult with children.”

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So it makes sense that her son, Marcellus, wound up working as an engineer in a local hospital and marrying Tahisia, a strategic advisor working closely with minority companies, and that they view community involvement as paramount to the family dynamic.

While Marcellus coached youth and high school football in his spare time, including several of Marquez’s teams, Tahisia did volunteer work and provided resources to people in the lower levels of the financial industry. By the time their eldest son, Antuan Butler, reached middle school, all three boys had spent time delivering turkeys through Metropolitan Ministries, painting houses through Habitat for Humanity and doling out toys on Christmas morning to underprivileged children.

“Even if we didn’t have the financial money to actually give, your time and effort is just as important, or volunteering is just as important,” Tahisia said. “So we always try to keep them involved in doing things like that throughout their entire life.”

In the fall of 2017, during his senior season at South Florida, Marquez organized a homeless drive to distribute essential items on Christmas Day. The idea to launch his own event was sparked by a sermon at Pinellas Community Church in which the pastor shared a message about the importance of finding purpose in life. And on their way home that day, Marcellus posed a question to his son: What’s your purpose?

Marquez told his father he wanted to help the homeless because too many people take simple things for granted: running water, steady electricity and having a bed to sleep in each night. Having grown up in St. Petersburg, where the climate is more forgiving, Marquez had grown accustomed to seeing encampments around the city. His grandmother recalls a conversation with a social worker from New York who told her homeless people from the north were given bus tickets to warmer parts of the country, like Florida, to increase their chances for survival.

They spread the word through Marquez’s social media accounts and solicited donations for blankets, shirts, backpacks and toiletries that are afterthoughts for some and indulgences for others.

The response shocked them.

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In addition to support from the local community, materials poured in from around the country. Doctors offices and dentists offices sent toothbrushes, toothpaste and floss from as far away as California, while some of the football players at Lakewood High School, where Marquez earned all-state honors and served as team captain, chipped in clothing items and whatever else they could afford. They received large packages of bottled water, dozens of blankets and even a few suitcases.

A project that began with the goal of stuffing three backpacks soared beyond 50.

“I think he’s always had a big heart,” said Cory Moore, the head coach at Lakewood. “That’s one thing that when he was in high school, we fed the homeless (as a team). We went to nursing homes even when he was in high school. It’s good to see that he’s continuing on giving back. We try to instill in all of our young men the importance of giving back to the less fortunate.

“I challenged them that even when they get to the great level that (Marquez) is going to, they should continue to give back. And he’s meeting it hands down. He’s gone over and beyond. It just says a lot about him and his family and their huge heart and their compassion for people.”

Yet there was still uncertainty about how things would unfold on Christmas Day, how their efforts would be received in public. The family drove to an area of St. Petersburg densely populated by the homeless and unloaded their bags from Marcellus’ truck. A video clip of the event shows Marquez wearing a green Santa Claus hat as homeless people run toward him from all directions, eager to secure an unexpected care package.

While some of the recipients accepted their bags and left, others lingered around the truck to share stories with Marquez and his family. Marcellus remembers a young lady breaking down because she hadn’t been able to bathe or use feminine products in days. She said she had been molested and raped several years prior but said nobody close to her believed the story. She ran away from home and had been living on the streets ever since.

Tahisia recalls a woman crying when she received the only pink book bag in the truck, a bag that had once belonged to Tahisia. The woman said she hadn’t changed her clothes in a week and became homeless after enduring long periods of abuse.

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“You can’t describe it, you can’t re-create it,” Marquez said of the scenes that afternoon. “It’s something that you just have to see for yourself. It’s a true look of enjoyment and appreciation to be able to give someone something they definitely would need. Not something they want, but something they need to survive. You couldn’t describe that look to anybody.

“I wish I could have given out more just because I was able to truly see how desperate some people were to be out on the street.”

Which is why Marquez wanted to expand the scope of his homeless drive. A year ago, numerous people approached them in search of hot meals only to be somewhat disappointed when food wasn’t included.

This year, Marquez has partnered with Heavy’s Food Truck in St. Petersburg to provide 200 free dinners for anyone who needs them. The truck is owned by a family friend who gave the Scantlings a significant discount from his regular rates. Marquez’s younger brother, Marcellus Scantling Jr., has stepped forward as the point person for that part of the operation.

Someone else wondered if grooming services would be beneficial, so the Scantlings arranged for barbers to provide haircuts free of charge. The Lakewood football team, led by Moore, has pledged to volunteer their time on Christmas Day. And Tahisia found this year’s pièce de résistance when a client pointed her toward a local thrift store that received a shipment of unopened Packers apparel — jerseys, sweaters and light jackets — with items priced two for $5. The Scantlings bought the lot, nearly 160 pieces in total, and they need 40 more to ensure every duffel bag will include a touch of Green Bay.

“How about that?” Tahisia said. “What are the chances of that happening?”

With Christmas landing on a Tuesday, between games against the Jets and Lions, Marquez will be unable to attend his event. But he will be there in spirit through his grandmother, who is touched by Marquez’s commitment to the homeless after watching her own brother spend part of his life on the streets after succumbing to mental illness; and through his parents, who are immensely proud to watch their son give back to the community; and through his younger brother, Marcellus Jr., who was so inspired by Marquez that he vowed to become more involved in this year’s effort. The giving continues from one generation to the next.

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Eventually, as Marquez settles in with the Packers, he would like to expand his efforts to Green Bay.

“No matter what I’m doing with my life, I’m always going to help,” Marquez said. “I’ve always been the type to help, and having that question asked to me was probably what sparked the whole thing.”

(Top photo: Ben Liebenberg / AP)