On Monday at lunch, I had a bittersweet conversation. At the table next to me sat Darius Weems, the Athens, Ga., teenager who is becoming an underground hero.

Confined to his larger-than-life wheelchair, Darius suffers from Duchene Muscular Dystrophy, which as the top genetic killer of children worldwide, will sooner or later will atrophy Darius’s muscles, lungs and heart. Most victims don’t see 25 years of age. Darius is 19.

And here is Darius, next to me, eating a sandwich and drinking lemonade out of a straw. Millions of people across this country know about Darius, thanks to the celebrated documentary called Darius Goes West.

The most decorated documentary of the year when it was released, the film tells the story of Darius and his friends, who take a cross-country journey to spread awareness of DMD and find a way to customize Darius’s battered wheelchair. In the film, you see that while his friends are trying to save his life, it is Darius who saves theirs, and since the release of the film, the entire Darius crew has been working – tirelessly, relentlessly, selflessly - on selling a million DVDs, not taking a cent of profit but instead donating it all to Charley’s Fund, which works – tirelessly, relentlessly, selflessly - to find a cure for DMD.

Darius has become this generation’s Jerry Lewis. And Monday, Darius and the crew came to speak to some Chattanooga students as part of the next leg of their traveling tour. In an RV, they travel to campuses and churches, cocktails and community halls, talking to as many people as they can. They’ve recently mailed a copy of the DVD to every middle and high school in America.

So I was shocked to hear that they were in need of a corporate sponsor.
“We don’t have a really big one,’’ one of the crew members told me. Outside sat their enormous RV, with lots of space on the side where a corporate logo could fit perfectly as they travel thousands and thousands of miles across the US.

“We don’t have one, and we sure need one.’’

Here in Chattanooga, we have so much. Foundations, corporations, trusts and associations. Imagine if one of those privileged groups were to offer sponsorship to Darius Goes West. Coca-Cola. Krystal. BlueCross BlueShield. SunTrust. Volkswagen.

Each of these corporations has shareholders, and the purpose of investing in a corporation is to make money. Such investments make a corporation grow.

What if we changed the way we viewed our investments?

In that lunch yesterday, I realized that I was one of millions of shareholders in the life of Darius Weems and his crew. I had invested in them, and their work, and their business whose sole purpose is to save lives. And, unlike the stock market of today, I will receive more than I could ask or imagine from helping this group.

And in a nation where individualism has gotten out of control, where celebrities pose and politicians argue, I had lunch with a dozen young men who exemplify what it means to serve and love their neighbor.

And when they came through Chattanooga, they asked that we find a way to love them in return. They asked that more folks invest in them.
Is there a corporation in our city of compassion that will help?

(David Cook can be reached at dcook7@gmail.com; more importantly, anyone looking to provide sponsorship should contact the crew at dariusgoeswest@gmail.com and the story of Darius can be found at dariusgoeswest.org)