Darius Goes West Trip Prep

By Lan’Tiqua Burks, M&M Tipster

In preparation for his trip, Darius and his friends and family all had to do a lot to get ready for this 7,000 mile cross-country trip. They all sold movie credits, had piggy banks at the stores around Athens, and door-to-door barbeques. Barbara Smalley, director Logan Smalley’s mother, helped organize the stops on the trip. (Picture: Logan Smalley, director of Darius Goes West, at the Darius Goes West Day Carnival)

Two weeks before they left they were a little short on money, but the United Cerebral Palsy contacted them and agreed to give them the rest of the money if they would pass out bracelets for their cause. Darius and all of his friends agreed, helping them meet their goal while assisting another cause.

Darius took eleven of his best friends on the trip with him to go across the country to California to convince MTV’s “Pimp My Ride” to pimp his wheelchair. This was the first time Darius ever left Athens and he was going all the way across the country.

Darius Goes West was filmed by Darius’s eleven friends, but they didn’t have any filming background. They searched on Google “how to make a documentary” and read as much as possible in preparation for the trip.

“He didn’t have any film making experience,” said Barbara Smalley. He literally taught himself how to edit, and I would watch…the dailies and I would be blown away ‘cause he told the story from his heart. That’s what made it successful.”

While the trip and making the documentary was going on, Darius’s friends were still busy with their own lives, but they devoted a large portion of their time to the trip and the movie.

“He edited while he was a senior in college so it took him a year,” Smalley said.

Barbara planned the itinerary and asked Darius where he wanted to go. She also threw in a few places in that he might not have known about. They got discounts at hotels and at different stops on the trip.

All the preparation and the money donated finally paid off after the movie was released and it raised two million dollars for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy research.

Lan’Tiqua Burks, 15, sophomore at Cascia Hall Preparatory School in Tulsa, Oklahoma.