Marvin Skipper’s plan was to graduate from Detroit Pershing High School, play basketball at Eastern Michigan University, then get drafted into the NBA in order to provide for his family and east side of Detroit neighborhood. Two of the three never happened.
The 6-foot-9 power forward was a standout for the Pershing Doughboys’ basketball team, where he averaged 13 points and 10 rebounds as a junior but was limited during his senior campaign due to injuries. Skipper still earned a scholarship to play at EMU in 2007, but never suited up due to a heart condition that nearly caused him to die, ending his playing career. Although he was not able to live out his basketball dreams, he is still handing out baskets, just in a different way.
Skipper’s Youth Are Bigger Than Life Foundation (YABL) will host its third annual grocery giveaway at Pershing (18875 Ryan Road) Saturday, December 15 beginning at 10 a.m. He plans to provide over 250 families with food for the holidays.
“I thought I would be the meal ticket to get my mom, sister, and family and friends out of the hood,” said Skipper, who grew up in the area of Six Mile and I-75. “I had played basketball since I was six and it was stripped from me. I had to find a different route for survival.”
“My dream was to make it to the NBA, take care of my family, and to also uplift my neighborhood. My neighborhood made me who I am today, making sure I wasn’t in the streets selling drugs, and I wanted to give back as if I did make it to the NBA.”
Last year, Skipper and his team of helpers assisted 240 families with groceries, in Pershing’s parking lot on the corner of Seven Mile and Ryan. He even uses the school’s boys and girls basketball team to help in the giving process in order for them to understand the importance of helping others. That is what his educational based non-profit organization is designed to do: service under-privileged youth residing in the inner city of Detroit through education on social, economic, and professional skills.
“I didn’t have it growing up,” said Skipper. “I didn’t have anyone hold a local food drive in my neighborhood and show me how to give back. I never had that, so I’m just trying to give the younger generation hope.”
Giving back to one of the more underserved and underrepresented neighborhoods in the city of Detroit means a lot to Skipper. And not because he was raised in the area or played for arguably the best basketball program ever in Michigan. It is the people that he touches and the stories that he hears that keeps his heart going, even when it literally stopped on him over 10 years ago, forcing him to wear a cell-phone sized defibrillator.
“I will never forget this. A man walked like 16 blocks to come get some food from me,” Skipper recalled. “Another man caught three buses just to come get some food. When he told me that, I left my event and took him home. I told him to get whatever he wanted out of the food drive and he didn’t have to take it all back home on the bus. I’ll will take you home myself. You never know what people have to do for their next meal.”
The first year Skipper paid out of his own pocket for the groceries, but thanks to donors such as the The Karring Group and Gleaners and help from friends and family, he is able to provide those in need in his neighborhood with turkeys, eggs, hot dogs, milk, cereal, canned goods, fruits and vegetables, candy, chicken, and other items for the holidays.
Over the past two years of the grocery giveaway, Skipper has had some of Pershing’s basketball greats assist him in his giving, including Derrick Nix and Kay Felder. As the event grows, he said he would love to see more Pershing basketball alumni lend a helping hand to the initiative.
“People get giving back confused with just donating money,” Skipper said. “Giving back can be your time, your presence, mentoring the kids, or even doing a food drive. Giving the people hope is enough because those same people I’m sure where the same ones coming to your game every Tuesday and Thursday at Pershing cheering you on.”
Skipper is still accepting donations through PayPal and Square Cash and that information can be found at youtharebiggerthanlife.com.
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