8 replies to this topic

[Mike K.]

Desert Bus for Hope is a charity event with a funny bone.

Desert Bus for Hope charity event roars into town
By Tristin Hopper, VibrantVictoria.ca
http://vibrantvictoria.ca/?p=1469

Thanks to some Victoria sketch comedians, one of the world’s most boring video games is yielding a charitable bonanza.


Desert Bus, produced in 1995, simulates, in real time, a tedious eight-hour drive between Tucson, Arizona and Las Vegas. And as long as donations flow in, the members of online comedy website LoadingReadyRun.com are prepared to play the game to oblivion.


Last Friday, the group kicked off Desert Bus for Hope III, their third annual Desert Bus marathon fundraiser. [...]

[ZGsta]

This is a great fundraiser, and the crew are all pretty funny people. The website where you can watch the live feed and get status updates is http://desertbus.org/

They're up to $63,000 now (with a ways to go), which is pretty mind blowing.

[Mike K.]

Wow, $63,000 is quite the achievement.

[R0ark]

A great cause indeed! It is also worth mentioning that some of the money they are raising will go back to buying things for kids staying at Victoria General Hospital since they are registered with Child's Play.

http://www.childsplaycharity.org/

Vic General's Child's Play Wish list: http://www.amazon.ca...st/J247WG7VUS6E

[ZGsta]

This just ended and they've raised $132,047.94

[ZGsta]

The LRR crew ran their 6th annual Desert Bus for Hope this year and raised $443,600 (all of which is donated directly to Child's Play).
That brings their lifetime total to well over a million dollars.

This is a great article about this year's event that goes into the history and the people behind it.
http://www.polygon.c...bus-childs-play

It's amazing to me that a charity drive run in Victoria by people from Victoria can raise over 400k in 6 days and get almost no local media attention (try searching the TimesColonist website for Desert Bus). I've seen writeups in the TC for events that raise less than 5% of that.

[adrian chamberlain]

The Times Colonist has had about half a dozen stories on this project. The most recent mention this one:

Virtual bus rides for charity
Times Colonist (Victoria)
Thu Nov 18 2010
Page: A5
Section: Capital & Van. Isl.
Byline: Jeff Bell
Source: Times Colonist


Boredom and drudgery are set to bring in the bucks for a Victoria group supporting pediatric health.

The members of LoadingReadyRun, a sketch-comedy ensemble, will be back at the wheel for the several days staging their fourth annual Desert Bus for Hope, a video game marathon live on the Internet. The action starts at 6 p.m. tomorrow at desertbus.org.

Last year's effort brought in more than $140,000 for Child's Play, a charity that supports children's hospitals.

The ensemble will have several "drivers" playing the Sega game Desert Bus, which simulates a ride from Tucson to Las Vegas, and is as boring as they come. But that also forms part of the game's charm.

The LoadingReadyRun folks describe it as "a tongue-in-cheek parody of other simulation games."

One of the drivers this year is Kathleen De Vere, who is also the event co-ordinator.

"We play as long as people donate," she said.

[Mike K.]

Thank you for the update, Adrian, and welcome to VibrantVictoria!

[Jason-L]

Just wanted to let folks know Desert Bus 9 is under way and raising money again for Child's Play charity.

https://desertbus.org/ is the home page.

 

Last year, they raised just over $640,000 for the charity driving the desert bus for about a week.