Marlene Quincoces, affectionately known as MarlyQ, was featured on the front page of The Miami Laker in the summer of 2002 for her tireless efforts giving to the community in what amounted to over 3,000 service hours in 3 years.
Not much has changed by way of passionate pursuit, except for the inevitable growth of Quincoces’ giving. The former Hialeah Miami Lakes High School student and Lakes native is now the founder and CEO of Perform Acts of Random Kindness, or PARK Project.
PARK Project is the culmination of over a decade of community service and is in itself another vehicle for service as it was designed to help cash-strapped charitable organizations and schools raise funds through various events. The signature event is a 5K run in North Miami Beach.
“PARK stands for ‘Perform Acts of Random Kindness’ and I believe one act can really make a change,” said Quincoces.
Quincoces was a part of a lengthy list of service clubs while in high school, received a key to the Town of Miami Lakes for her academic and extracurricular pursuits, and went on to found and lead FIU's chapter for the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life. After her years of volunteering for Relay for Life, she was offered a job with the organization, changing Quincoces’ career plans which initially were in the field of education.
“I was in shock that I was offered to get paid to do what I had already done for years for free,” said Quincoces. “It made me realize that there was an opportunity to work in what I have always loved doing.”
After working for various non-profits, Quincoces found the work culture created an overload of stress, turnover, and burned out employees which led her back to her roots in finding the beauty in the simple act of random kindness. Fueled by this notion, she went on to create PARK Project which began as a 5K event to raise funds for servicemen and servicewomen in honor of the 10th anniversary of September 11 in 2011.
PARK continued to grow and mold into the annual event it has become today. After revolutionizing the concept model, an improvement that earned Quincoces and her staff third place in The Miami Herald’s Business Plan Challenge Award, PARK Project now serves to raise funds for any charity, non-profit, school and organization named by participating runners.
“Our mission was to create an annual event that would inspire people to leave their mark and PARK for whatever cause moves them and also shine the spotlight on the kind philanthropic efforts happening across South Florida every day,” said Quincoces. “Instead of telling people what cause they would run for, we’re leaving that decision to them.”
Anyone can register a team for the 5k Park Fest to support their chosen charity. Half of each $40 registration fee goes directly to the participant’s charity of choice, and the remaining half to the budgets of philanthropic groups for an estimated $200,000 total funds raised.
When asked what motivation moves her to give so intensely, Quincoces bashfully offered that her birthday coincides with the Feast Day of the Patron Saint of Charity, revered in Cuba and South Florida.
“I have no other explanation than to say that I feel I was born for this, and I was blessed to be given the tools I need to do it,” said Quincoces.
In the midst of leading a large-scale charitable event, Quincoces is also in the middle of planning her wedding to PARK Project co-founder Humberto Casanova, a fellow HML classmate.
What began as a beach cleanup in 1999 snowballed into a charitable force to be reckoned with. Dozens upon dozens of charities and non-profits have directly benefitted from Quincoces’ work.
Quincoces’ favorite Aesop saying in high school was “No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” In the span of a decade, Quincoces has lived out Aesop’s saying and continues to prove that not only are small acts of kindness never wasted, but they are the foundation for tangible and far-reaching change.
The 5K PARK Fest takes place on November 2 from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the North Shore Bandshell at Collins Avenue and 73 Street. For more information visit www.5kPARKFest.org.