Collison, Thunder Players Give Back To Local Non-Profit

The Oklahoma City Thunder is giving back in a special way to help kids with special needs in the metro.

Nick Collison is a big supporter of Special CARE, a non-profit providing early childhood and therapeutic education for 135 metro children. Saturday night on News 9, the show "Found Causes" will feature the Thunder forward in action helping the kids.

Kids of all ages get the attention they need for different disabilities at Special CARE, located at 12201 North Western Avenue in OKC. They offer early childhood care, physical and occupational therapy with the help of K9 therapeutic dogs "Nacho" and "Costa". Before the finals a couple of Thunder players have stopped by to support the kids and volunteer their time.

"Our kids, we did a whole pep rally. The kids all wore Thunder gear and our staff…made up a whole cheer or chant including sign language and ‘Thundered Up'. We love our Nick," Special CARE founder, Pam Newby said.

And Collison is a huge supporter of Special CARE.

"It is very exciting. The Thunder actually came to us via Westmoore High School," Newby said. "They participated in a contest…about volunteering with the high school boys, where the high school boys did volunteer work."

The kids and staff at Special CARE even Thunder Up and have pep rallies to support the team.

"It was a great opportunity for us to get to know the Thunder players more," Newby said.

Collison started volunteering around his birthday and one of the kids at Special CARE, Zach, is a big fan of his. Zach's class decided to make Collison a cake for the occasion, and since then, he has become a big fan of Zach's and the non-profit center.

Read more about Special CARE here.

"He also took the time to play a little one-on-one with Zach he has made a personal contribution and helped with scholarship opportunities," Newby said. "Nick is very un-assuming and will probably be embarrassed that I am sharing this. But he's been a huge supporter of our program and to those individual children."

The non-profit has been helping hundreds of kids like Zach long before the Thunder were here, since 1985. Special CARE is in the process of expanding its facilities and needs to raise $500,000 to $600,000 more dollars.

Check out, "Found Causes," Saturday at 7 p.m. right here on News 9.