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Disabled former football player brings community together after losing home in apartment fire

Posted at 4:16 PM, Sep 21, 2018
and last updated 2018-09-24 18:10:48-04

TULSA, Okla. -- Close to a dozen volunteers and friends came together Friday to move everything from boxes to heavy equipment in the rain.

They all gathered at the Riverchase Apartments for Emeka Nnaka, a former player for the Oklahoma Thunder of the GDFL and avid volunteer in the Tulsa community. Nnaka tells us this month has been a challenge. His primary caregiver and father broke his ankle, and his only form of transportation was totaled.

"That helped me so much. I was able to finish school, go to work. To lose that independence that was... a big gut punch," Nnaka said.

He was shocked on Wednesday to find his home in ashes. Now Nnaka plans to rise, with high hopes for what comes next.

"I'm in that dark place as a cocoon and I'm about to take off and get like a butterfly so I know that it's a new season, a new job, new car, new house... I'm embracing all the good with the bad," he said.

Nnaka felt encouraged as the community gathered around him. They continued to pack up belongings even as the ceiling started to fall.

"When he's faced with obstacles like this it's just looking at the brightside. He has friends, he has family, he's loved. He will overcome," Nnaka's friend Eric Bostick said.

A GoFundMe was created to help with transportation and housing. For more information, click here.
 

 

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