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Anthony Barr is Vikings' nominee for NFL's Walter Payton Man of the Year Award

Many of the kids playing in the Jeremiah Program's parking lot Monday night, brushing past Anthony Barr as they raced around to stay busy and stay warm, were infants when the Vikings linebacker started volunteering there seven years ago.

Eighteen of the students who received scholarships in the first five years of Barr's foundation have graduated from college, moving on to careers and opportunities that might not have been possible without the assistance the organization gave to single parents like Barr's mother, Lori, had been.

"The Minneapolis community really embraced me as one of their own, and it was only right to give back," Barr said.