Registration will take place in person on Monday, June 20, Tuesday, June 21, 2011 from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and Wednesday, June 22, 2011 from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. in the cafeteria at Northwestern High School. Please print the four forms below and bring completed and signed to registration. Or the permission slip, emergency contact info, waiver release and photo permission form can be printed and either e-mailed to flintstonebasketballcamp@gmail.com or mailed to Tonda Peterson, c/o Gail Ganakas, Flint Board of Education, 923 E. Kearsley Street, Flint, MI 48503.”

Attached are the four PDFs that need to be available for download.

Waiver Release

Emergency Contact

Camp Photo Release Form

Permission Slip

The excitement came the moment Shana Perry got a phone call from the Thunder a few months ago saying it wanted to host a Thunder Fit Clinic at her school. The predicament soon followed. Del Crest Middle School has 587 students. Perry, the school’s principal, could only choose 60 for the event.

“So I said, because it’s about fit and healthy lifestyles I talked to my phys-ed teachers and said, ‘let’s pick the kids who are in P.E. because you wouldn’t believe that there’s a lot of parents who decline for their kids to take P.E.,” Perry said. “So we looked at P.E. first, the kids who are actively involved, who serve as leaders. We even do nonfiction writing, so sometimes during P.E. class they’ll be asked why is a fit and healthy lifestyle good? So these are the kids that come to school all the time. It doesn’t mean they’re the best students in class, it just means they’re the best students in P.E. class. They’re not the best athletes. They’re the ones who come in here and give it every day, so that’s who we picked.”

The kids heard their names called on the school’s P.A. system on Tuesday, when they all were brought into the cafeteria and told they were chosen to participate in the clinic with Thunder players Kevin Durant and Mo Peterson.

“My philosophy is trust is doing what’s right even when no one’s watching,” Perry said. “They didn’t know we were – because we were. We were making the list.”

With handmade posters adorning the gymnasium walls and party music blaring through speakers, Durant and Peterson ran the students through exercise and basketball drills, held a Q&A session, gave a pop quiz and spoke to the kids about the importance of incorporating fitness into your lifestyle at an early age.

“Just an hour a day, starting to build good habits like that is going to help down the line,” Durant said. “I’m very adamant about that and I want to push that out as much as possible.”

Durant gladly obliged to be a part of the NBA Fit Team when they approached him a while back. Several other Thunder players showed their support throughout NBA Fit Week by wearing NBA Fit warm-ups before games.

Durant and Peterson headed to Del City after the Thunder went through an hour-long practice on Friday afternoon. By the time they were through with the clinic, they had broke another sweat.

Durant, for one, said he can relate to the challenges kids face these days with staying in shape.

“This day and age with the computers and video games and Twitter and Facebook, it’s different,” Durant said.

Even so, Durant said he started to cut out junk food, eat more salads and stay away from fast food and burgers in recent years. He considered Friday’s clinic a treat.

“It’s just a joy seeing them,” Durant said. “Basketball is something I’m passionate about. For this to be part of Fit Week and coming out here to do a clinic with the kids I’m happy to be a part of it. I’m very excited to get out and play and hopefully it corresponds to what they do on an everyday basis. Hopefully it’s not just here that they work out on the basketball court or outside. Hopefully it’s every day.”

Whatever item Jeremy Underhill wanted to get, so did Jason Underhill. And vice versa.

So it goes when you’re 7-year-old identical twins. Jeremy (or maybe it was Jason) wanted a Nintendo DS for Christmas. “Yeah, let’s get that,” the other twin agreed.

Not all gifts were identical. There was one football and one basketball.

Suddenly, and somewhat inexplicably, Jason (maybe Jeremy) wanted to dance in the aisle. The other twin joined him.

Their celebrity escort, second-year Thunder shooting guard James Harden, cheered on the dancing Underhill Bros. and smiled like he had just dunked over Cleveland’s J.J. Hickson (again).

The Thunder held its third annual Holiday Assist shopping spree Thursday at 5 p.m. at the Super Target at 13924 N. Penn Ave. Ten families from the Grandparents Raising Grandchildren program were the beneficiaries.

Dressed in blue Santa caps, every Thunder player participated, as did the team mascot, Rumble. Coach Scott Brooks was excused so he could attend the basketball game of his son, Chance.

Also on hand were members of the coaching staff and the team’s front office, including general manager Sam Presti.

Each group of grandchildren got a $500 gift card, as did their grandparents.

Judging from the price tags on several items stuffed into shopping carts, several accompanying players paid whatever amount went over the limit.

The first item placed into the cart of backup shooting guard Morris Peterson was a 40-inch flat-screen television. Two pairs of shoes and a skateboard soon followed.

The toy department was attacked with vigor, as were the sporting goods and electronics departments.

Only in a store so massive could shoppers actually lose sight of 6-foot-11, 245-pound rookie center Cole Aldrich and ask, “Where is he? I can’t see him. I lost him.”

Forward Serge Ibaka, who was raised on soccer in the Republic of Congo, impressively dribbled a soccer ball with both feet at the end of Aisle B42.

With a healthy number of store employees, Thunder staffers and volunteer security officers in the mix, the event was not the mob scene one might assume. A few shirts in the clothing department were accidentally knocked to the floor during a temporary logjam, then quickly picked up and returned to their proper place by All-Star Kevin Durant.

“Hey, this is a two-way street,” Royal Ivey said while playing shopping cart traffic cop.

When the shopping was done, players posed for pictures with their groups.

Presti said the more frequently a player participates in a shopping spree, the more joy seems to come from it. Presti noted how veterans such as Nick Collison, Peterson and Ivey excel at the events, and spoke of how quickly young players like Russell Westbrook have embraced the concept.

“It is so gratifying to be a part of this,” said a smiling Presti.

The Second Annual Toy Drive

Adding on the the positive energy for Christmas, Morris Peterson of the New Orleans Hornets, hosted his 2nd annual Toy Drive benefiting the Morris Peterson Foundation on Tuesday, December 22, 2009 from 2:00 – 4:00pm. The event took place at the Desire Street Youth Center in Peterson’s hometown of New Orleans, giving away toys to children who face economic hard times and wanted to doing something special to give them happy smiles. Check out the exclusive photos below.