ABOUT HUDDY
Get to know Carson beyond the hospital.
To most of us, he's Carson. To a whole lot of people, he's Huddy.
Before HuddyStrong became the name of a website, Huddy was simply a nickname — one that's followed Carson through school, baseball, friendships and growing up in Colorado.He's funny, social, stubborn, occasionally a little lazy around the house, and incredibly loyal to the people he loves. He can dig his heels in with the best of them, but call him out and you'll usually find the sweet kid underneath pretty quickly.
And if you're his friend and you need him, he'll be there in a heartbeat.
We're seeing now just how much that loyalty has gone both ways.
Friends, baseball and growing up
Friends have always been a huge part of Carson's life.
His high school years were filled with the usual mix of school, parties, guys' nights, girls, Xbox, poker, Rage Cage, music, TV shows, Chipotle and Chick Fil A runs and whatever else he and his friends managed to get themselves into.
Carson also spent a huge part of his life playing baseball. Matt coached him when he was younger, and for years baseball dictated our family calendar and occupied a pretty enormous piece of Carson's world. He grew up with teammates, coaches, baseball families and friendships that extended well beyond the field.
As that chapter came to an end, Carson was beginning to figure out what came next.
This past summer he started his first real job, painting houses. He was spending time at the gym — and was pretty proud of getting big — wakesurfing whenever he got the chance, hanging out with friends and enjoying having a little more freedom after graduation.
He loves all kinds of music, his longer hair, his white Toyota 4Runner, warm weather and being around people.
He grew up ski racing, spent years on baseball fields, and lately was much happier behind a boat on a surfboard.
His people
If there is one thing that has become overwhelmingly clear since the accident, it's how many people Carson has collected around him.
Our immediate family is small, but our extended family has never really stopped at bloodlines. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, longtime family friends, neighbors, school families, baseball families and friends we've gathered through different chapters of our lives have always been part of Carson's world.
And then there are his friends.
The same kid who would show up in a heartbeat when one of them needed him is now discovering just how quickly they'll show up for him.
They have visited, sat with him, made him laugh, played cards, checked in, sent messages and simply been there. They've helped bring pieces of his normal life into a situation that is anything but normal.
And somehow, that circle keeps growing.
Friends of friends. People from school. People from our community. People connected to our family from years ago. People who have never met Carson but heard his story and decided they wanted to stand behind him.
What started as Carson's community has become something much bigger.
That's what HuddyStrong has come to mean to us.
It's Carson, of course. But it's also this remarkable group of people standing around him, behind him and beside him as he works toward whatever comes next.
We're incredibly grateful you're here.
What was next
School was never the thing Carson loved most. But as he got older, something started to click. He was becoming more interested in what he could do with his future and especially in business and entrepreneurship.
He had been accepted to Arizona State University to study Business Entrepreneurship and was supposed to move into his freshman dorm on August 14.
Arizona felt like Carson: sunshine, warm weather, a huge campus, new friends, independence and an entirely new world to explore.
He was ready to leave Colorado and start figuring out who he was going to become.
Then, on July 30, everything changed.
Carson's accident put those plans on hold and started him down a road none of us could have imagined.
But that is something that happened to Carson.
It isn't who Carson is.
FOLLOW HUDDY'S JOURNEY
To most of us, he's Carson. To a whole lot of people, he's Huddy — an 18-year-old from Colorado who had just graduated high school and was weeks away from starting at Arizona State when everything changed. On July 30, an ordinary summer morning on the lake turned into a catastrophic boating accident that nearly took his life. In the weeks since, Carson has fought through more than a dozen surgeries, two stays in intensive care, and the beginning of a recovery that doctors expect to take years, as he works to regain the use of his left leg.
This website is where his story lives. It's where our family shares updates from the road ahead — the surgeries and setbacks, the milestones and small wins, and the moments in between that don't fit in a text message. It's also where you can help: by donating to Carson's recovery fund, by sharing his story with your own circle, or by giving blood, the same gift from strangers that saved his life. However you found your way here, thank you for standing with Huddy. He has already survived things we weren't sure he would. Now comes the part where he builds what's next — and he won't be doing it alone.
Help Carson on his road to recovery
Carson's medical care and long-term recovery are expected to cost millions — and many of the treatments he'll need fall outside traditional coverage. Every donation goes exclusively to Carson's care: the surgeries, specialists, rehabilitation, equipment and therapies on the long road ahead.