Mark your calendars, gaming enthusiasts: Desert Bus for Hope returns on November 14. This unique event mixes philanthropy, gaming, and all things nerd culture.
Desert Bus for Hope is an annual charity event that raises funds for Child’s Play, a Seattle-run game-industry charity focused on raising funds for children’s hospitals and sexual-assault resources.
Desert Bus for Hope project manager James Turner says that the money raised ends up funneled to lots of different places around the globe.
“It’s always been that one charity Desert Bus for Hope feeds into,” says Turner, who is also a member of Victoria-based YouTube comedy group LoadingReadyRun. “I think they’re up to 90 hospitals now across the world.”
During the event, staff and volunteers play Desert Bus, an incredibly boring video game where you drive a bus from Tuscan, Arizona to Las Vegas, Nevada in real time. The first hour raises $1. With each hour that passes, viewers must donate seven percent more to keep the fundraiser going.
“We do it for as long as people keep giving us money,” says Turner. “At this point, nine years in, we know that it runs for about six and a half days. But it gets to the point where it costs so much money to keep us going that we just can’t raise that kind of cash anymore.”
The idea of doing something to support Child’s Play was originally Turner’s.
“Eight years ago, LoadingReadyRun had this tiny little fan base, and it seemed like we could do something with it to help this charity I had been donating to.”
Paul Saunders, one of the original LoadingReadyRun members, found the game online and wanted to do something with it. At first, they wanted to play the game and film themselves for their YouTube channel, but instead they decided to do that as well as raise money for the charity Turner was interested in supporting.
“We were like, okay, well, we might as well do something useful with it,” says Turner. “Why Desert Bus? Because it was there and it made us laugh, and to be honest, it is a very boring game.”
Desert Bus for Hope has grown from a small, impromptu event held in a living room to a professionally organized (and professionally catered) fundraising marathon.
“In the beginning we would feed each other,” says Turner. “It would be like, all right, shovel this spaghetti in, or in the early years it was cookies and cake and pop. Now it’s catered by a real place and we eat actual food.”
Catering isn’t the only way Desert Bus for Hope has changed over the years; the organizers have also experimented with a variety of schedules. After much juggling, the crew found a schedule that worked.
“Everyone has an eight-hour driving shift,” says Turner. “If you’re not driving then you’re either at home resting or you’re a co-pilot, which is basically the people who are running the show.”
According to Turner, the hope is that switching to eight-hour shifts will ensure that one of the 19 drivers will always be playing the game, while also affording all involved plenty of opportunity to get on camera doing challenges, singing silly songs, or acting in fun skits.
Desert Bus for Hope now has over 15 staff members working throughout the year, as well as 45 volunteers dedicated to keeping the show on the road. For more information, or to watch their live webcast of the event, visit desertbus.org.