On a recent trip through Make-A-Wish Foundation, Joseph Thuli of Darlington and his family went to Los Angeles to visit the set and cast of the ABC’s TV show “Shark Tank”.
Thuli, who has been battling histiocytosis from a young age, was nominated by a social worker at the American Family Children’s Hospital in Madison to make the trip to meet the cast, Barbara Corcoran, Robert Herjavec, Lori Greiner, guest “shark” Rohan Oza and Thuli’s favorite entrepreneur Mark Cuban.
“He started his business young and so did I,” Thuli said.
Joseph started his business, J.O.T. Stainless Steel Creations, in 2014, where he creates boat anchors, gardening shovels, beverage holders and many more.
He brought some of his products to show the “sharks” and give as gifts as he and his family watched tapings of the show for a whole day.
“It was pretty cool. It was a small group. There was only the ‘shark’s’ family and a few guests,” Joseph’s mother, Angie Thuli mentioned.
Mark Cuban gave Joseph two big bags of goodies full of Dallas Mavericks shirts, shorts, hats, headbands, polos and other goodies, as Cuban is the owner of the NBA team.
“The hat hasn’t come off his head unless he is showering,” Angie joked as Joseph sported the new Mavericks hat.
Joseph also mentioned he received Mavericks practice jerseys. Angie stated that Cuban had to get a picture of Joseph wearing one of the jerseys, #41, worn by Dirk Nowitzki.
“[Cuban] said he is going to wonder how you got a hold of his jersey because he wore it in practice last night,” Angie said explaining that Cuban had gone into the locker room the night before and took the jersey out of Nowitzki’s locker.
The next day the family visited Universal Studios and enjoyed their hotel room being right on Hollywood Boulevard.
Even though the trip was only a few days, the memories are going to last for a lifetime. Joseph had so much fun and enjoyed talking to Mark Cuban about his business.
“Everyone was fabulous to work with and made sure everything went off without a hitch. It exceeded our expectations. It was over the top. I can still see the smile on his face,” Angie said smiling at Joseph.