January 15, 2008
We LOVE our fans!
Thanks to all of you, ABC's Nightline coverage of DGW aired twice. Thanks to all of you, The Today Show featuring Darius and Logan had record ratings. Thanks to all of you, our segment on the Ellen DeGeneres Show was repeated. And now, thanks to all of you...drum roll, please...Darius has been named a finalist in the Volvo for Life contest! YOU voted for him--time and time again--and it paid off...not just for Darius, but for Charley's Fund, which is guaranteed $25,000 (for DMD research). Now, as finalists, we have a shot at $100,000!
Thank you, thank you, thank you. Our fans rock!
Special thanks to Julie Phillips at the Athens Banner-Herald for nominating Darius for this awesome honor.
Everything is in the judges' hands now, so all we can do is keep our fingers (and toes) crossed. Whatever the outcome, we are already winners, thanks to all of you!
KNOW ABOUT IT!!!
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Sunday, January 13, 2008
YOU VOTED FOR DARIUS...NOW VOTE FOR TRACY!
January 13, 2007
Thanks to everyone who voted for Darius in the Volvo For Life contest. We hope we advance to the next round and should hear something within the next week or so (fingers crossed). Now we're asking you to cast one more vote--this time for Tracy Seckler, Charley's mom. She is a national finalist for an award given by Cookie Magazine.
The Smart Cookie Award recognizes, celebrates, and supports mothers who are making a significant difference in the world. In addition to some high-profile honorees (last year, Sharon Stone and Cynthia Nixon were chosen), the award also recognizes an "everyday extraordinary mom," who is elected by the visitors of Cookie's website, as the people's choice. Please visit this link and vote for Tracy Seckler now. You can only vote once. If Tracy wins the online vote, $35,000 goes to Charley's Fund for DMD research! So, VOTE, and please tell everyone you know to do the same. Here's where to go:
www.cookiemag.com/go/smartcookie
To learn more about Tracy and Charley's Fund, you can also visit www.charleysfund.org
Other news: We had an awesome housewarming party for Jamie and her family last Thursday night. It was a great turnout, and everyone brought food to stock the Weems' fridge and pantry (we'll post pictures soon). Kudos to Jenny Manders for organizing this wonderful evening of food, fun, and fellowship. And big thanks to Buffalo's for donating 100 wings. Yum! Jamie got some great gifts, and she and Darius want to thank everyone who attended the party and who helped build their house. They LOVE their new digs.
Know about it!
Thanks to everyone who voted for Darius in the Volvo For Life contest. We hope we advance to the next round and should hear something within the next week or so (fingers crossed). Now we're asking you to cast one more vote--this time for Tracy Seckler, Charley's mom. She is a national finalist for an award given by Cookie Magazine.
The Smart Cookie Award recognizes, celebrates, and supports mothers who are making a significant difference in the world. In addition to some high-profile honorees (last year, Sharon Stone and Cynthia Nixon were chosen), the award also recognizes an "everyday extraordinary mom," who is elected by the visitors of Cookie's website, as the people's choice. Please visit this link and vote for Tracy Seckler now. You can only vote once. If Tracy wins the online vote, $35,000 goes to Charley's Fund for DMD research! So, VOTE, and please tell everyone you know to do the same. Here's where to go:
www.cookiemag.com/go/smartcookie
To learn more about Tracy and Charley's Fund, you can also visit www.charleysfund.org
Other news: We had an awesome housewarming party for Jamie and her family last Thursday night. It was a great turnout, and everyone brought food to stock the Weems' fridge and pantry (we'll post pictures soon). Kudos to Jenny Manders for organizing this wonderful evening of food, fun, and fellowship. And big thanks to Buffalo's for donating 100 wings. Yum! Jamie got some great gifts, and she and Darius want to thank everyone who attended the party and who helped build their house. They LOVE their new digs.
Know about it!
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
DGW ON MTV!
January 9, 2008
The headline is for real! Only we're talking about MTV/Canada.
Tonight at 6:30 PM, Darius and Logan appeared on MTV Live, a show produced by MTV/Canada and based in Toronto. The three-minute segment was taped via webcam at Athens Academy (thanks, Jarrard!), and within seconds of airing, we were getting fan mail. Woo-hoo!
We were quite surprised when we got the call a few days ago. They said they had read about our film and seen Darius and Logan on The Today Show. They asked for a copy of the movie so they could show clips from it, and we thought for sure when they saw it, they would back out. But they didn't!
Canada loves DGW. In fact, another huge TV show out of Toronto, called "The Hour" (think "60 Minutes, only edgier) wants to interview Darius for their show. Since the movie is playing at the Sprockets International Children's Film Festival on April 17 in Toronto, we decided to take Darius to Canada, and he will be interviewed for "The Hour" while there. Darius Goes (Extreme) North! Thanks to new DGW fan Mona Sidler-Hosios for making this happen!
We're making news all over the place...
* Check out the awesome review on DVDTalk by film critic David Walker. He saw our film in Portland, OR at the Longbaugh Film Festival and has been a huge DGW fan ever since. To access it, go to www.dvdtalk.com and put "Darius Goes West" in the search box. Please leave a comment!
* We also love what Canadian blogger Dave Hingsburger had to say about DGW:
DGW
Last year when Lynne Seagle came to do a presentation here in the Toronto area, we had dinner together at a Irish Pub style restaurant. Lynne was full of stories about the most recent staff retreat that had been held for her organization called Hope House which serves people with intellectual disabilities in Virginia. She went on and on about a film that she had seen and told the story of how she came to get rights to show the film at the staff retreat. That was the first time I had heard of Darius Goes West. Lynne spoke of her staff watching the film and alternately laughing, crying and cheering.
When Lynne wrote me a few days ago asking for my home address because she had something she wanted to send me, I thought that she was probably going to send me the new sexuality policy that we'd worked on together or a draft of our plans to do a workshop day together. Both things I wanted, so when the package arrived, I tossed it aside for a few minutes because I was talking to my boss on the phone.
As soon as I was done, I ripped open the package to find a note from Lynne and a DVD copy of Darius Goes West. All I remembered about what Lynne had said about the movie was that it was about a group of young men who take another young man with Muscular Dystrophy on a road trip to California to see if they can get his wheelchair 'pimped' on the MTV programme Pimp My Ride. A wonderful concept. We had company staying with us and everyone gathered around the television.
We popped it in and pushed play. Within seconds my eyes began to fill and I had to look away. I wished I was seeing this on my own. Why didn't Lynne warn me about ... oh yeah ... she did. But no shame here, everyone was reacting the same way. The movie is full of laughs, real laughs ... but it's also full of moments of real, true, tenderness. It encourages the viewer to reevaluate what community means, what caring means ... they were documenting two road trips - the one made by the 15 year old man with Duchene's Muscular Dystrophy to California, but they were also documenting the journey that each was making in relation to the other. At first the young men travelling with Darius learned little lessons about the big issue of assessibility - but they began to learn big lessons about the little issue in life.
All the money from the sale of the DVD is going to raise money for research into MD, that's cool, but even if it wasn't - this isn't a DVD you buy to support a charity, this is a DVD you buy because for the time watching it, you are with Darius as he goes west. And for 90 minutes, there's no better place to be.
Note to Readers: I don't know how to buy this film, I looked it up on the web, but I'm not all that good at these kind of searches. It's not on Amazon ... so if you know or if you are a computer whizz that can find these ... could you post in the comments section about purchase information. This is a must see, must experience, movie.
Note to Lynne - Thanks.
KNOW ABOUT IT!
The headline is for real! Only we're talking about MTV/Canada.
Tonight at 6:30 PM, Darius and Logan appeared on MTV Live, a show produced by MTV/Canada and based in Toronto. The three-minute segment was taped via webcam at Athens Academy (thanks, Jarrard!), and within seconds of airing, we were getting fan mail. Woo-hoo!
We were quite surprised when we got the call a few days ago. They said they had read about our film and seen Darius and Logan on The Today Show. They asked for a copy of the movie so they could show clips from it, and we thought for sure when they saw it, they would back out. But they didn't!
Canada loves DGW. In fact, another huge TV show out of Toronto, called "The Hour" (think "60 Minutes, only edgier) wants to interview Darius for their show. Since the movie is playing at the Sprockets International Children's Film Festival on April 17 in Toronto, we decided to take Darius to Canada, and he will be interviewed for "The Hour" while there. Darius Goes (Extreme) North! Thanks to new DGW fan Mona Sidler-Hosios for making this happen!
We're making news all over the place...
* Check out the awesome review on DVDTalk by film critic David Walker. He saw our film in Portland, OR at the Longbaugh Film Festival and has been a huge DGW fan ever since. To access it, go to www.dvdtalk.com and put "Darius Goes West" in the search box. Please leave a comment!
* We also love what Canadian blogger Dave Hingsburger had to say about DGW:
DGW
Last year when Lynne Seagle came to do a presentation here in the Toronto area, we had dinner together at a Irish Pub style restaurant. Lynne was full of stories about the most recent staff retreat that had been held for her organization called Hope House which serves people with intellectual disabilities in Virginia. She went on and on about a film that she had seen and told the story of how she came to get rights to show the film at the staff retreat. That was the first time I had heard of Darius Goes West. Lynne spoke of her staff watching the film and alternately laughing, crying and cheering.
When Lynne wrote me a few days ago asking for my home address because she had something she wanted to send me, I thought that she was probably going to send me the new sexuality policy that we'd worked on together or a draft of our plans to do a workshop day together. Both things I wanted, so when the package arrived, I tossed it aside for a few minutes because I was talking to my boss on the phone.
As soon as I was done, I ripped open the package to find a note from Lynne and a DVD copy of Darius Goes West. All I remembered about what Lynne had said about the movie was that it was about a group of young men who take another young man with Muscular Dystrophy on a road trip to California to see if they can get his wheelchair 'pimped' on the MTV programme Pimp My Ride. A wonderful concept. We had company staying with us and everyone gathered around the television.
We popped it in and pushed play. Within seconds my eyes began to fill and I had to look away. I wished I was seeing this on my own. Why didn't Lynne warn me about ... oh yeah ... she did. But no shame here, everyone was reacting the same way. The movie is full of laughs, real laughs ... but it's also full of moments of real, true, tenderness. It encourages the viewer to reevaluate what community means, what caring means ... they were documenting two road trips - the one made by the 15 year old man with Duchene's Muscular Dystrophy to California, but they were also documenting the journey that each was making in relation to the other. At first the young men travelling with Darius learned little lessons about the big issue of assessibility - but they began to learn big lessons about the little issue in life.
All the money from the sale of the DVD is going to raise money for research into MD, that's cool, but even if it wasn't - this isn't a DVD you buy to support a charity, this is a DVD you buy because for the time watching it, you are with Darius as he goes west. And for 90 minutes, there's no better place to be.
Note to Readers: I don't know how to buy this film, I looked it up on the web, but I'm not all that good at these kind of searches. It's not on Amazon ... so if you know or if you are a computer whizz that can find these ... could you post in the comments section about purchase information. This is a must see, must experience, movie.
Note to Lynne - Thanks.
KNOW ABOUT IT!
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
OUR "KNOW ABOUT IT" PROGRAM HAS LAUNCHED!
January 8, 2008
At long last, the Darius Goes West "Know About It" program has launched. Huge thanks to Chris Spence, Harvard technical genius, who took the website to the finish line!
The "Know About It" program targets middle and high schools nationwide, so if you know any teachers or students who fit this critria, please send them to the website to sign up: www.dgwknowaboutit.com
For a $25 fee (to cover our costs), schools get a copy of "Darius Goes West," plus access to the "Know About It" website, which is filled with lesson plans (based on the movie) for teachers and lots of cool stuff for students. We want students who watch the film to roll up their sleeves and organize fundraiswers to help find/fund a cure for DMD.
Other news...
* We're having a "Stock the Pantry" housewarming party for Jamie on Thursday night at the Weems' new home. If you'd like to come, call Barbara at DGW Headquarters at (706) 613-7237.
* Save the date! Don't miss "A Valentine for Darius," a special screening of Darius Goes West on February 13 at 7:00 PM at the Georgia Museum of Art. This is a rare opportunity to see DGW on the big screen and help Charley's Fund at the same time. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased at the door. Darius and many crew members will be at the screening for a Q&A.
We are long overdue in sending a big shout out to Dan Aguar at DIGIMA 24, a local film lab, for helping us get our DVD (and extras) finished in time for a pre-holiday release. Dan allowed us to practically move in to his lab so we could meet our deadline. Thanks so much, Dan!
Know about it!
At long last, the Darius Goes West "Know About It" program has launched. Huge thanks to Chris Spence, Harvard technical genius, who took the website to the finish line!
The "Know About It" program targets middle and high schools nationwide, so if you know any teachers or students who fit this critria, please send them to the website to sign up: www.dgwknowaboutit.com
For a $25 fee (to cover our costs), schools get a copy of "Darius Goes West," plus access to the "Know About It" website, which is filled with lesson plans (based on the movie) for teachers and lots of cool stuff for students. We want students who watch the film to roll up their sleeves and organize fundraiswers to help find/fund a cure for DMD.
Other news...
* We're having a "Stock the Pantry" housewarming party for Jamie on Thursday night at the Weems' new home. If you'd like to come, call Barbara at DGW Headquarters at (706) 613-7237.
* Save the date! Don't miss "A Valentine for Darius," a special screening of Darius Goes West on February 13 at 7:00 PM at the Georgia Museum of Art. This is a rare opportunity to see DGW on the big screen and help Charley's Fund at the same time. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased at the door. Darius and many crew members will be at the screening for a Q&A.
We are long overdue in sending a big shout out to Dan Aguar at DIGIMA 24, a local film lab, for helping us get our DVD (and extras) finished in time for a pre-holiday release. Dan allowed us to practically move in to his lab so we could meet our deadline. Thanks so much, Dan!
Know about it!
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