Developing their basketball skills is important for the Moose Jaw Thunder Basketball Club teams, but developing as people is a big part of the program as well.

The Thunder’s under-15 and under-13 girls teams gave back to the community on Sunday as they took time out of their day to deliver five dozen carnations to the Mother’s Day tea at Extendicare.

“The girls had a really great time giving out the flowers, there was some smiles and some tears and we brightened some faces there,” said Head Coach Curt Lorge. “It was just a really wonderful thing for the girls to put together and do for Mother’s Day, I’m really impressed by the team.”

The idea to deliver some flowers on Mother’s Day came after the teams held a bottle drive with a good turnout and wanted to find a way to give back to the community, the girls decided that this was how they wanted to help.

“20 out of the 30 girls in our club took an hour out of their Mother’s Day Sunday and it was pretty cool to see these young ladies experience giving back,” said Lorge.

“I don’t think you can be a good player unless you’re a good person and I really like challenging them and getting them to think about things like this. I think you become a much better player when you have these kind of intentions.”

Extendicare is a senior citizens care facility on South Hill here in Moose Jaw and Lorge said you could see how much they appreciated the visit for the girls.

“It was an eye-opener a bit because there was a lot of elderly ladies there that I don’t think they had family coming to visit, so there was a lot of big smiles, a few hugs and a few tears, it was really cool,” said Lorge.

The Thunder Basketball Club is just getting their season underway, the U15 team travelled to Alberta last weekend and went 2-1 at a tournament.

The local teams will be heading to the Hornets Tournament this weekend.

“It will be a great challenge for us and we’ve been practicing and it will be nice to get them in the gym and see what we’ve got,” said Lorge.