We hope you enjoyed your first shift at Desert Bus. We have more fun activities planned for you.

If you have any questions please refer to this marketing video.

We debuted our dance features.

We hope you enjoyed our many activities like our giveaways,

Our textile manufacturing,

Our new staff member,

The features of the new overlay

We hope you're enjoying your stay. Night Watch is up next. Have fun.

We want to that Gregory Skeels for his donation of several Secret Lairs.  These include a full set of Marvel (Iron Man, Captain America, Wolverine, Black Panther, and Storm), Deadpool, and Arcane along with the Raining Cats and Dogs Commander Deck.  Desert Bus has always run on the support of its fans.

Thank you Gregory.  You can find details about this giveaway here. To enter, donate $7.99 for one entry or any multiple of $7.99 for multiple entries.  Hurry this giveaway ends at 5:30.

We know you have a lot of places to be and we're glad you're spending it here with us as the Desert Bus Resort. We've got all the fun and adventure you've come to love. If you're unsure about your stay, check out the amenities below.

We raised over One Desert Buck before we even started. Sit back, relax, and enjoy.

We're happy to announce a quartet of visitors during Desert Bus for Hope 2025! Say hello to our three returning friends, and a fresh new person to bring to the Store, or whatever traditions we can submit them to in the course of a couple hours.

Edit: We've been notified that Nelson has visited thrice! Astute viewers will have seen him previously at DB7, DB8, and DB2023. Each time was brief, so revel in extended Nelly hours this year.

Jordan Hopkins

Saturday November 15 & Sunday November 16, 6PM - 10PM

You may recognize Jordan from over 10 years of service at Desert Bus for Hope including a stint as the Comms Director and several years of deeply cursed puns on Night Watch. This year Jordan can't be around the whole week but he wanted to still spend some time bussin' with the rest of us! When he's not found at Desert Bus for Hope, you can find him as a Social Media Manager for Wizards of the Coast working on Magic: The Gathering!

https://bsky.app/profile/jordanhopkins.bsky.social

https://www.twitch.tv/RayFK

Jared Nyberg of Jagasilk

Monday November 17, 5AM - 9AM

Jared Nyberg is co-owner of JagaSilk, a maccha specialty company that directly sources from small farms in Japan. They mill, roast, blend and ferment. He is also the president of the International Tea Appreciation Society that puts on the annual Victoria Tea Festival Revival, and is the band leader of Truth and Dolphin, who are currently on their Musical Tea for Peace Tour (performing their unique brand of Theatre-folk-rock with a Tea Artist making Kung Fu Tea while also raising money for Save the Children).

https://jagasilk.com/

https://www.instagram.com/jagasilk/

https://twitter.com/jagasilk

Nelson Salahub

Tuesday November 18, 10AM - 2PM

Nelson started performing at the age of ten as Santa Claus in the school holiday revue. He took an interest in the trombone during high school and went on to receive a bachelor of music from Uvic. Careers in music being as hard to manage as you’ve heard, he landed in a local game store after university and managed magic: the gathering tournaments for a decade. He’s been involved with LoadingReadyRun since as far back as 2013 and can be found goofing around on various live streams and YouTube videos.

https://www.twitch.tv/coachnelly

https://www.youtube.com/@nelsonsalahub

https://bsky.app/profile/coachnelly.bsky.social

Travis Eriksen of Child’s Play Charity

Friday November 14, 3PM - 7PM, Saturday November 15, 4AM - 8AM, Sunday November 16, 11AM - 1PM

Travis Eriksen began his journey with Child's Play Charity in 2016, where he serves as Executive Director. Formerly a dedicated middle school math and Career and Technical Education teacher, Travis transitioned his passion for education into a role advocating for children's health and well-being through gaming. His time at Child's Play has been marked by expanding its impact globally, promoting the therapeutic benefits of gaming including pioneering a new career path within children's hospitals. His advocacy continues to shape the charity's mission, empowering children through the power of play.

https://childsplaycharity.org/

https://twitter.com/CPCharity

https://www.instagram.com/childsplaycharity/

We're exactly one week away from the beginning of Desert Bus for Hope 2025, which means the donation page is live, as well as our Prize schedule (as is tradition).

Last year we introduced Vickery auctions and were happy with the results, so moving forward all Silent Auctions will operated under that system. For a reminder of how they work, please check out our blog post introducing them here.

New for prizes this year is REMINDERS, which enable us to notify you when that super cool craft is live for its Giveaway or Silent Auction (live auctions' window of activity is so quick, we're not instituting the reminder function for them). On the listings for those items, you'll see this check box, right below the time range the giveaway or auction will start:

You'll need to be logged into a donor account, of course, so why not create one, or update your information, while you're here? And to cover our bases, this is an automated system, and we won't be redistributing or sharing any of your information outside of Desert Bus.

We've also included a similar notification for aspiring Craft-Along participants, where we'll email once Desert Bus 2026's Craft-Along opens.

We now hand the imaginary microphone over to James for his traditional pre-run challenge to chat.

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It’s time for James Challenges Desert Bus Chat. But I’m gonna be honest with y’all and lay it all out. Obviously this year has been rough on everyone, myself included. It’s been a struggle to find the energy for this years run. I know I’ll muster the juice needed for the show, but I’m tired.

I have been wracking my brain for the last couple weeks trying to find something for this years show that would be fun, but also not require a ton of work on my part. I got some good suggestions from y’all, but nothing was really doing it for me.

Then I had a cute idea that wouldn’t require a ton of output on my end. I got it booked and was happy with where I landed. Cut to 2 days later. I got an email on Wednesday saying there was a schedule problem, and the date I choose no longer worked. I tried to swap it from something we were going to have at the after party to something we’d have at the start of the run, but there were logistical reasons that wouldn’t work. So 2 days out from the run I was back to having nothing, and I think nothing it shall remain.

The good news is I have a really great idea, and something I’ve been thinking about doing for years planned for the big 20th anniversary next year, but that still leaves us with nothing for this year. And I think that’s OK. Sometimes it’s good to take a break. So here’s all I’m asking. If you’re reading this and you can throw $5 towards the cause before we start that would be swell.

If all 7600 of you who follow me on BlueSky do that (and I assume you’re all active users who read every post I make) we’ll break records! And to spice it up just a little bit, I will match the first 100 donations of $5USD exactly that are made before the start of the run. Obviously it’ll be great if we get more, but I figure that’s likely what my goof would have cost me 😃.

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So there we have it. In 7 days, this wonderous trek begins anew. See you there.

Hey friends, I figured a Halloween-y jump scare was appropriate today. We're 14 days away from the start of Desert Bus for Hope 2025, and if you haven't been keeping up with our social feeds, it's time to distill all that sweet information in some sort of juice. Possibly raspberry flavoured?

The volunteers and their shifts have been slowly revealed on our Team page over the last week, and Az from Comms produced some great pictures covering all the changes:

We've got a handful of more announcements over the next weeks, including Donations Opening & Prize Lists going live on November 7th, our Guest Schedule coming after November 10th, and the DB2025 Shirt going live over at Fangamer sometime next week! Plus, we'll have our standard assortment of merch available during the course of the run, with a preview popping up right before we begin on November 14th.

Oh, and James is soliciting ideas for a challenge before the run starts.

We're right in the thick of it now. Welcome aboard and buckle up.

Heya friends,

It's been a couple weeks since Desert Bus Express 2025, and if you're not on social media, you may have missed James, Joe, Graham, and our Anonymoose donation matcher delivering a large (both in size and amount) cheque to the BC Cancer Foundation.

Meme aside, that amount is wholly due to your support and generosity over 24 hours of experimental, remote shenanigans. Will Express return in the future? Who's to say, but it was an enormous success thanks to James' leadership in conjunction with our broadcast organizers: Joe, Cory, and Map (and PJ from Comms, but he's writing this so 🤷).

Here's some of the greatest hits from the show:

Wanna learn how to fold a sheet?

How about an uplifting Maple Moment?

Consult the MASH oracles to determine your future.

Hey, where's this McDonald's?

Desert Bus for Hope 2025 is only 151 days away, so we're getting back in driving shape. As always, catch up with the latest here, and on our socials, including Craft-Along project progress– happening right now!

Donations are now live for Desert Bus Express 2025! As a reminder, donations won’t extend this event’s duration, but you are helping the BC Cancer Foundation with every dollar raised (as an aside to total raised on our site for this event is displayed in Canadian dollars– your donations are also being converted to CAD since they go directly to the charity!). In addition to your efforts, an "Anonymoose" local friend of Desert Bus, who works for a company in Victoria (and works with a lot of BC charities), has offered to match donations up to the first $100,000 (CAD) raised. Think of it as an official-unofficial challenge to the chat. 

We don’t have a system to automatically double every donation that comes in up to the first $100,000. The matching donation will be made directly to the BC Cancer Foundation after the event. With that said, we are looking at ways to incorporate the matching donations throughout the event. More info on that when we get rolling next Friday!

If winning cool prizes while supporting a great cause is your jam, James has mined, then crafted, a bounty of 15 items spread between the three shifts, including a trio of silent auctions.

Finally, here’s a quick look at each of the shifts, plus all of our volunteer drivers:

May sure crept up on all of us, didn't it? We hope your year so far as been good, or at least all right. Hopefully, we can perk up your day with good news.

Craft-Along Submissions for Desert Bus for Hope 2025 are officially open! We're eager to see what wonderful and imaginative pitches you have for projects, and you have until May 27th, 2025 to apply.

Desert Bus Express 2025 starts in a little over two weeks on Friday, May 23rd at 4PM PDT. We'll be sharing updates on volunteers, and our Team page has several confirmed already. Plus, we've got 15 prizes from our usual corporate sponsors with a couple surprises.

And now the big one: Desert Bus for Hope 2025 will be returning on November 14th, at 3 PM PST. Planning for that is about to begin, but we got that whole Express thing to handle first. ;)

PJ here, James wrote an awesome article about all the deets for Desert Bus Express. I’m gonna get out of his way.

Hey Friends! Let's dig into the details of Desert Bus Express!

During 2020, 2021, and 2022, Desert Bus was run either entirely (or partially-remotely) using a ton of tech and systems we built to do just that. Once we were in a position to come back entirely in person, we did so. But we still had all this tech we developed that was going mostly unused. Naturally, some of it was integrated into the engineering we use for our November event, but we also discovered we could run these types of events from the comfort of our homes. Fast forward to last year, and we finally decided 2025 would be the year we'd try out a single day, remote event in an effort to raise some money for a great cause.

So let's talk a little bit about what Desert Bus Express is, and what it's not. And a quick note here. Going forward I will be referring to Desert Bus Express as DBE and Desert Bus for Hope as DBfH.

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Starting at 4:00 PM Pacific on Friday, May 23rd, we will go live at twitch.tv/desertbus for 24 hours. The event will be split into three 8 hour shifts. Each shift will have a group of entertainment volunteers, and a couple folks behind the scenes taking care of tech and socials. So, just like Desert Bus for Hope, there will be all manner of entertainment for you to enjoy through the run. However, there are some differences, and I'll go over some of the big ones below.

The biggest change is the very structure of this event compared to DBfH. Unlike the big show in November, we have set a cap on how long this event will be, and that cap is 24 hours. Obviously, what that means is your donations don't extend the amount of time we'll be driving for. But we also have something else lined up that we think will help us push the amount we raise, and we'll have more information on that when we open up donations on May 16th.

The other really big change is the charity of choice we'll be raising money for! We've been looking for ways to branch out in an effort to support other charities over the years, and this event gave us the best opportunity to do just that! We ended up choosing BC Cancer Foundation for a couple of reasons. Everyone on the Desert Bus team (and we're guessing almost all of you as well) has gone through the awful experience of either dealing with a cancer diagnosis yourself or with someone you love. It was also a chance to support a charity that is local to so many of us here in Victoria and British Columbia.

We will still have prizes, 15 to be exact. Each shift will receive 4 giveaways and 1 silent auction item. These will operate exactly as they do for DBfH. You may notice we don't have any live auctions; that is something we're keeping specific for DBfH in November. We are aiming to have the prizes listed on the website when donations go live on May 16th.

Another difference from DBfH is that we will be running this event with the challenge system closed. Due to the remote nature of the event, and a much shorter amount of total time each shift gets (8 hours compared to almost 40 in November) we've decided to just let the entertainment volunteers figure out how they wish to fill their shifts. That's not to say you can’t throw out ideas and suggestions in chat, but we wanted to keep things nice and easy, operating with fewer things the entertainers need to monitor this time around. Another change in a similar vein is that there is no RDP button for this event. It's important that we keep some things specifically for DBfH in November :)

Finally, let's talk about our drivers. We have a 16-person staff of drivers from the DBfH team who will be handling driving the Cloud Bus remotely. We have so many wonderful volunteers here at Desert Bus HQ, and we wanted to get as many folks involved in this show as possible. So while you won’t see them directly, they’ll be there, behind the scenes, keeping the bus on the road! Be sure to head over to the team page to see who our wonderful drivers are (and sneak peeks at some entertainment volunteers)!

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As you would expect, there are a ton of other small changes here and there, and ultimately we won't really know exactly how this thing is going to go until we get started :D End of the day, this is our first go at this, and there will be a learning curve. What the actual identity of DBE is won't really be known until we've done the dang thing, so we hope you're all as excited as we are, and we'll see you all on May 23rd at 4:00 PM Pacific!

We will continue to share information with you for this event in the coming weeks, including who you’ll see on each shift and a few prize reveals! Keep an eye out here and on our various social media for that information.