The Thunder have been making their presence felt throughout the Oklahoma City community as of late.
Last week, players stopped in at a coffee shop, went to an interactive exhibit with a class of fourth-graders, and help provide books to high school students in need.
Deonte Burton and Andre Roberson brought donated copies of The Kite Runner and Of Mice and Men to Capitol Hill High School last Tuesday. The Thunder organization purchased the books after seeing an online plea from two 11th grade teachers at the school.
According to Paris Lawson, a digital content reporter for the Thunder, two teachers at Capitol Hill High School “posted their classroom needs on donorschoose.org with the hope that someone in the community would help them in their efforts to provide a class set of books to their students”.
Burton told Lawson that it felt good to give back to the community while changing the narrative that athletes don’t care about education.
“It feels good. Especially to come in here and help kids because school is really important and we’re showing that we actually care about school because a lot of the stigma around basketball players is that we don’t care about school and giving back to schools shows that we care and we want them to succeed.”
Thanks to their contribution and stop at the school, Capitol Hill High School principal, Adam Jewell said Burton and Roberson gave the students an extra “pep in their step” and likely created some Thunder fans for life.
“They’re going to be talking about the Thunder players being in their classroom for the next couple of weeks which leads right into the Thunder season so were really excited that they have the opportunity to support us and we then have an opportunity to support them.”
