Dude Perfect!
Thanks to Make-A-Wish, our family was able to hang out with DUDE PERFECT! However, if you don’t have kids, or your kids are well and truly past the age of YouTube, let me introduce you to our family’s favorite Youtubers… 5 college mates who started making trick shot videos when YouTube was in its infancy. They’ve broken world records, filmed on every continent, amassed billions of views, and they’re having the time of their life filming their fun antics while giving God the glory.
This post is one I have wanted to write for MONTHS! However, due to us being invited to their new Texas based headquarters, all the Make-A-Wish families couldn’t post anything until the ‘Dudes’ released the video of their new premises. A video you can find HERE.
In December of 2022 I lodged an application with Make-A-Wish Australia. I wrote this application knowing it might take some time (and I was not wrong) but the heart of it was to make sure Murphy had some incredible experiences lined up to look forward throughout treatment. Early in 2023 a Make-A-Wish volunteer came to our home and visited Murphy, capturing his ‘wish’. Unfortunately, the ‘wish’ could not progress during ’23, and then in Feb ’24, we had to cancel the wish because it couldn’t transfer overseas. In April of 2024 we re-lodged the ‘wish’ application again, and the team here in Charlotte worked with the Aussie team to recapture the wish. Four months after this process the phone rang and it was the team at Make-A-Wish with flight details and an itinerary for Murphy and the whole family!
Unselfishly, Murphy chose to meet the Dudes, as he knew it would bring pure joy to all of his siblings (and mum and dad too!). This is a testament to who Murphy is, caring through and through. He kept saying over and over “my wish is for my whole family.”
Our Texas adventure was filled with much excitement and a whole lot of adventure! The Make-A-Wish Foundation looked after everything from leaving our home on a Sunday afternoon, through to arriving home on Wednesday. Such a blessing for our family, and memories that will last far beyond some of those hard memories of his cancer treatment.
After arriving Sunday, Monday was a rest day, where we were able to visit the Dallas area, eat out, check out Crayola Experience, buy some merch and hang as a family. Then Tuesday was when we got to meet the guys! A bus picked up the 10 families staying at the same hotel and we were transported to the new Dude Perfect warehouse! The kids were bursting. When we arrived, we were greeted by the Dudes and they simply said to us all, “we have three hours to hang, nowhere is off limits, go and have fun!” And with that, the kids ran throughout their place, shooting Nerf with Coby, Sim racing with Cody, Shooting hoops with Cory, Baseball with Tyler and Soccer with Garret! The kids well all pretty star-struck for a while but warmed up eventually! It was such a surreal time, and it was a testament to how real and down-to-earth the ‘dudes’ are. Murphy and the kids walked away beaming with excitement!
I felt strongly to write a letter to each of the guys, and thank them for their testimony, because we saw them in North Carolina at a live show late in 2021 and were captivated by their boldness in how they shared their faith. We were a part of a 10,000 seat arena (with seats in the nose bleeds) watching their 2021 tour show and the ‘dudes’ shared faith, trials, life and gave a salvation prayer at the end. I wanted to write to them simply thanking them for all they have done, thanking their families for the sacrifice and sharing howe incredible it is to have safe, entertaining and family friendly TV on in our house for years that as a parent I can trust. And as a family we were all able to give this letter, along with a jar of Vegemite! I doubt the Dudes have eaten their way through the jar of salty goodness, but one of the dudes reached out personally afterwards to say thanks (and gave a great recommendation for where to have dinner that Tuesday night!).
A huge thank you to Make-A-Wish, who grant 1000s of wishes each year and impact many lives! Thank you for the Dudes, and their staff! The team even managed to find out that it was Ted’s birthday, so they sung Happy Birthday to him! So so special! This experience that we had was a topic of conversation countless times in hospital, and to see it come to fruition was so fun! We truly are incredibly blessed.
