Around the Thunder business office, we enjoy a good story. And when you engage with as many people as we do on a daily basis – whether it’s the 18,203 we’re in touch with every game night or the kids we encounter during community events – we accumulate a lot of stories, and we swap them regularly.
The best ones spread almost virally throughout our work day, reaching every corner of the office. This is one that’s already starting to get around.
On Monday, we had one of our biggest community events of the year – our annual trip to the City Rescue Mission in downtown OKC. This is an all-team event, where players, coaches and other staff volunteers serve a meal to hundreds of our city’s homeless population, then put on a mini-carnival for all the families in the mission’s gymnasium. It’s part of our Holiday Assist tradition (which we are proud to have presented by our partner, Cox Communications).
We love this event. It’s big, it borders on the chaotic, but we always walk away from it with our eyes brightened and our hearts warmed.
We posted several photos from the event on our Facebook page, including this one of Kevin Martin playing basketball with one of the young boys who currently lives at the City Rescue Mission shelter:
Beyond the direct impact of Monday’s event on everyone involved, this picture had an extended effect that we only learned about when we saw this comment on our Facebook post.
Many thanks to Cindy for sharing, many kudos to that young man for his courage in telling his story and much praise to the class for being so respectful. This is a wonderful story for us to take with us going into our Thanksgiving weekend, as well.
- Karina Henderson
