Marquis

2024 Calendar Cover Model Marquis suffered frostbite on Christmas 2022, and woke up in the hospital with both his feet cut off at the ankles. Several months before that he had agreed to be in our 2023 calendar, climbing in our car fully able-bodied, but we couldn’t find him the day of the shoot and had to substitute another model. Whereas last summer he dreamed of returning to New York and getting a job to care for his family, now the former high school basketball and football star, and father of a nine-year-old boy will spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair. Homeless for the last eight years, the New York native came to Utah for a door-to-door sales job opportunity, and the employer ended up not paying him, sending him out to the streets. Being without family is the hardest part of life here, he noted. He has been eager to return home and be with his son and near his mom ever since. And while Rocky Anderson helped house Marquis earlier this year, Marquis lost the housing because he would rarely go home. He told the Nomad Alliance how lonely he was locked in his small studio, and that he missed his friends, his only family in thousands of miles. We hope to raise enough from calendar donations to send Marquis home. Marquis is an excellent freestyle rapper and will be performing at the Nomad Talent Showcase on Nov. 30th, 2023. 

It boosted my confidence up. I feel on top of the world. I feel like a movie star! Good things will come out of this. I have a lot of hope.