Green Bay Packers QB and Chico native Aaron Rodgers donates $1 million to Camp fire relief

Nearly everywhere that helped mold Aaron Rodgers into one of the NFL's best-ever quarterbacks has been shrouded in smoke or singed by the Camp fire burning in Butte County.

Rodgers grew up in Chico, a town of 93,000 people on the outskirts of the flames. It's now hosting tens of thousands of displaced neighbors from the nearby towns of Paradise, Parkhill and Magalia that have been overrun by the wildfire.

His old high school, Pleasant Valley, where he threw for more than 4,000 career yards, has been closed since Nov. 9. It won't reopen until Dec. 3.

Butte College, where Rodgers started before heading to NCAA stardom at Cal, won't reopen until after Thanksgiving.

The Packers' quarterback is giving a hefty sum back to the region to help fire victims rebuild. Rodgers announced on Twitter a $1 million donation to the North Valley Community Foundation.

His longtime sponsor State Farm is also donating $1 for every retweet of Rodgers' post, up to $1 million.

“Growing up in Chico, I spent a great deal of time up there, I played a lot of football and basketball and sports up in Paradise, basically lived in Magalia at one point, which is an even tinier town off of Paradise. The devastation there is tough,” Rodgers told reporters earlier this month (via ESPN).

“Hearing the stories of people running down the highways to avoid the fire. Knowing that people burned alive in their cars. It's heartbreaking, for sure, and then you have a fire in my adopted home of Southern California, so it's been a tough week for sure, and myself and the guys from Northern California, our thoughts and our prayers are with those folks. Not only the great firefighters fighting the fire, but all the people displaced. In my home area, Butte County, and then obviously down south in the L.A. area.”

After the Packers' loss to the Seahawks last week, Rodgers wore a “Butte Strong” hooded sweatshirt. Proceeds from the sale of the sweater, made by Chico-based clothing company Upper Park, benefit the Northern California Fire Relief Fund, according to Upper Park's website.

The company raised more than $35,000 from the sale of the “Butte Strong” merchandise.

Rodgers also wore a Santa Monica Fire Department hat during his postgame news conference after Green Bay defeated Miami on Veterans Day.

“I've been on the phone with a lot of folks close to me in Northern California and in Southern California,” he said then. “I had the fortune to meet some great firefighters from Santa Monica in the offseason. They sent me this hat, and I was thinking in my house today, this was the only paraphernalia I had that could represent my support for those folks who are fighting the fires. My heart goes out to the great people of Paradise, California.”

There are nine wildfires burning in California. The Camp fire in the northern part of the state has scorched more than 153,000 acres and is 80 percent contained, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

The Woolsey Fire north of Los Angeles has burned more than 96,949 acres and is 98 percent contained.