Today on Alpha Flight, we proved that baking bread is much more interesting than playing a bus driving simulator. Today was a packed shift, so let’s recap what else you might’ve missed…

Danny called in to the bus! Courtesy of the Make-a-Wish Foundation, Danny donated $5000 to Child’s Play! Thank you for your generous support.

Joe is challenged to watch a cute dog video:

Erika ran a trivia challenge:

We look to the stars to identify Fruit Astrology Signs with Lorna Schlitzwhistle:

And, finally, Worksafe: The Musical!

Remember, for the latest updates, stay tuned to desertbus.org. You can also catch up on the latest #DB2020 happenings around the web…

• Submit your bussing from home photos at yourphotos.desertbus.org.
• Tweet about what Desert Bus for Hope and Child’s Play means to you using the hashtag #DBToMe.
• Visit youtube.com/user/DesertBusForHope for the latest video highlights from the Video Strike Team (VST).
• Be our friend on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
• And, of course, the live stream is always available at desertbus.org and twitch.tv/desertbus!

Jacob has returned to us for Alpha Flight this year, and once again he is generously offering his time and talents in a Donation Drive!

You may know Jacob as a very kind and funny person, but did you know he is also an accomplished voiceover actor and role-playing game writer? Jacob has graciously agreed to donate his time and abilities to the winner of this lot. If you have a project that requires a voiceover Jacob will provide a 2-hour voiceover session for you! But what if YOU want to be the one doing voiceovers? Then Jacob will provide you with 2 hours of private coaching and information. “But Erika,” I hear you say, “didn’t you use this same prize description last year?” Don’t worry about it. The third option is that Jacob will run a custom one-shot RPG session of Dungeons & Dragons or Vampire: The Masquerade for you and your friends! You didn’t think I mentioned he was an RPG writer for nothing, did you?

Donate $15.55 (or multiples thereof) for a chance to win this prize. We’ll run this donation drive until 5:30pm PST.

We’d like to take a moment to thank one of our Prize Sponsors for this year’s Desert Bus for Hope: Ysbryd Games!

Ysbyrd Games is an publisher that is looking for spirited independent game developers who hunger to create games with magic. They provide a rock-solid bridge for every step of the video game publishing journey: fundraising, polishing, and marketing. They’ve seen lots of hopeful indie devs get derailed by the realities and difficulties of video game publishing; they’ve walked the road themselves and are here to help out.

In addition to donating prizes to this year’s event, we also welcome Ysbyrd’s community manager, Jacob Burgess, joining us on Alpha Flight this year. Thank you Ysbyrd for your support of Desert Bus for Hope!

Thanks to everyone that’s submitted a photo of #DB2020 at home. We’ve been posting many of your submissions over at photos.desertbus.org. Here’s a small sample of what you’ve sent to us…

Photo by Geisterkarle

Photo by JDKaiba

Photo by Purple_Stack

Photo by James

Share your photos of #DB2020 at home at yourphotos.desertbus.org and we may share them on-air and at photos.desertbus.org.

We’ve kicked off a Donation Drive for some really cool, and really limited edition, Magic: The Gathering cards, from two special edition sets.

Thalia: Beyond Helvault features four foil copies of Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, each with different art depicting an important point in the life of the cathar-turned-heretic Thalia, illustrated by the two artists who know her best, Johannes Voss and Magali Villenueve.

Secret Lair: International Women’s Day 2020 features five legendary women from across the Multiverse, all with new art by five of Magic’s finest illustrators. The set includes foil, borderless versions of Captain Sisay, Oona, Queen of the Fae, Meren of Clan Nel Toth, Saskia the Unyielding, and Narset, Enlightened Master. The art on the cards was created by Magali Villeneuve, Mila Pesic, Cynthia Sheppard, Anna Steinbauer, and Livia Prima.

Donate $9.20 (or multiples thereof) for a chance to win this prize. We’ll run this donation drive until 3:45pm PST.

We’ve been inspired by the ongoing Gotta Catch Em All silent auction. Most notably… we’re noticing that Alpha Flight should really have a Pokemon that represents the shift. So, let’s address that.

We’re challenging the community to design a Pokemon inspired by Alpha Flight. Starter or legendary, let your imagination run wild. And, if you want to incorporate the entertainers of Alpha Flight as trainers, why not?

Send your creations as a JPG or PNG to [email protected] with the subject line “Alpha Flight Pokemon.” To help us out, please name your file with your screen name, as well as include the screen name you’d like us to refer to you by on air should we show it on air.

We’ll run this Creative Challenge until 4:30pm PST. The winner of this Creative Challenge will receive a Desert Bus For Hope 2020 T-Shirt!

Coming up at 2pm today is our first Live Auction of Desert Bus for Hope 2020. And what a prize it is… the winner of this auction will receive a custom crafted “Guardians of the Bus” Battle Chess Set!

This set includes 32 metal and resin scale miniatures, each modified and painted as a different cast member or Desert Bus lore item. Play as the Tech Army – equipped with boom mic scythes, Minecraft picks, and Random Dance Party robots. Or, challenge them with Team Spoop – wielding song, spell, and Creepy Doll. 12 additional bonus minis are included, usable for prop, display, or extremely strange game of fairy chess.

At 28mm scale (~1:56), each piece doubles as a miniature for tabletop games. The wood box, made of laser-cut walnut, white poplar, and purple heart, measures 11″x11″x2″ when closed. All 32 main chess pieces fit snugly into custom-sized cavities, and the magnetized lid can be fully removed for use as a massive tabletop dungeon tile.

Since this is our first Live Auction, let’s cover how this works. Live Auctions are conducted in our Twitch channel chat at twitch.tv/desertbus. Make sure you’re logged in to Twitch and that your Twitch ID is linked to your Donor Account. Remember… chat is usually ahead of the stream by a few seconds, so watch chat for the latest updates during the auction.

Desert Bus for Hope is fueled by the endless generosity, enthusiasm, and support of our community. You make up the backbone of what we do here every year and we thank you for being a part of this endeavor.

Because you all are fantastic and are such an important part of what we do together, we wanted to provide a new opportunity to add your voice to this year’s event. Starting today and through the entire run, we encourage you to post on Twitter about what Desert Bus for Hope and Child’s Play means to you, or what impact they’ve had on your life.

Share your story on Twitter with the hashtag #DBToMe. We’ll be retweeting submissions throughout the run on the @desertbus Twitter feed and highlighting a selection of tweets from the community here on the desertbus.org blog.

We here at Desert Bus for Hope would like to thank one of our returning prize sponsors for this year’s event: Card Kingdom.

Card Kingdom is owned and operated by brothers John and Damon Morris. They began their adventures in the collectables game as kids, learning the business by selling baseball cards at local swap meets. In 1999, they opened Card Kingdom in John’s basement, and before long they quit their day jobs to focus full-time on making Card Kingdom the best place on earth to buy Magic cards. Since then Card Kingdom has grown into one of the world’s biggest retailers of Magic: the Gathering, with two brick and mortar locations in the Seattle area.

Thank you Card Kingdom for your continued support of Desert Bus for Hope!

Hello and welcome to the end.

Of Dawn Guard day 1. 

We had a great start to our Coffee Pong tradition…

And we were joined by the lovely Kate Watt, aka Bill’s Mom!

We danced, we chatted, we had lots of fun. Hope to see you again tomorrow!