Desert Bus for Hope

“	You guys are the greatest idea. If you didn't exist I would have to invent you.	”
- Penn Jillette, co-creator of Desert Bus on November 20, 2010

Desert Bus for Hope (DBfH or DB) is an annual charity fundraiser. Organised by a large team of volunteers including many members of LoadingReadyRun, DBfH raises money for Child's Play by playing Desert Bus, a minigame from the unreleased Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors as long as people keep donating.

Background

The cast agreed to play Desert Bus for an hour for each increment of money donated - the amount necessary increased by seven percent each time the increment was reached. So the first hour would require one dollar to be donated, the second a dollar seven, and so on. The money earned went to the charity Child's Play which provides video games, toys and books to children's hospitals all over the world. To date (post-Desert Bus 2019), the run has earned more than 6 million USD.

Desert Bus generates a lot of its own tropes and terminology that pass from year to year. You can find explanations and origin stories for many of these in the Desert Bus Lexicon.

List of Desert Buses

Name	Start Date	Start Time	End Date	End Time	Hours Raised	Raised	Lifetime Raised	Points	Crashes	Venue
Desert Bus for Hope 1	2007-11-23	18:00	2007-11-28	06:43	108	$22,805.00	$22,805.00	11	6	Bill's Place
Desert Bus for Hope 2	2008-11-28	18:00	2008-12-04	00:46	126	$70,423.79	$93,228.79	11	14	Moonbase Mk I
Desert Bus for Hope 3	2009-11-20	18:00	2009-11-26	10:44	136	$140,449.68	$233,678.47	16	2	Moonbase Mk II
Desert Bus for Hope 4	2010-11-19	18:00	2010-11-25	15:07	141	$209,482.00	$443,160.47	14	8	Moonbase Mk III
Desert Bus for Hope 5	2011-11-18	18:00	2011-11-25	00:36	150	$383,125.10	$826,285.57	15	5	Moonbase Mk III
Desert Bus for Hope 6	2012-11-16	21:00	2012-11-23	05:24	152	$443,630.00	$1,269,915.57	12	13	Moonbase Mk III
Desert Bus for Hope 7	2013-11-16	10:00	2013-11-22	22:18	156	$523,520.00	$1,793,435.57	14	10	Moonbase Mk III
Desert Bus for Hope 8	2014-11-14	10:00	2014-11-21	00:50	158	$643,242.58	$2,436,678.15	12	24	Lunar Module
Desert Bus for Hope 9	2015-11-14	10:00	2015-11-21	01:30	159	$683,720.00	$3,120,398.15	11	26	Lunar Module Mk II
Desert Bus for Hope 10	2016-11-12	10:00	2016-11-19	01:48	159	$695,242.57	$3,815,640.72	12	29	Lunar Module Mk III
Desert Bus for Hope 2017	2017-11-17	10:00	2017-11-24	00:16	158	$655,402.56	$4,471,043.28	11	19	Moonbase Mk V
Desert Bus for Hope 2018	2018-11-09	10:00	2018-11-16	02:33	160	$730,099.90	$5,201,143.18	17	7	Lunar Module Mk IV
Desert Bus for Hope 2019	2019-11-08	08:00	2019-11-15	02:20	162	$865,015.00	$6,066,158.18	12	21	Lunar Module Mk IV
Desert Bus for Hope 2020	2020-11-13	10:00	2020-11-20	06:04	164	$1,052,902.40	$7,119,060.58	7	45	Moonbase Mk V & Virtual
Desert Bus for Hope 2021	2021-11-12	18:00	2021-11-19	17:18	167	$1,223,108.83	$8,342,169.41	8	39	Moonbase Mk V & Virtual
Desert Bus for Hope 2022	2022-11-12	14:00	2022-11-19	13:46	166	$1,138,674.80	$9,480,844.21	11	32	Moonbase Mk V & Virtual
Desert Bus for Hope 2023	2023-11-11	14:00	2023-11-18	13:06	167	$1,193,560.00	$10,674,404.20	12	18	Moonbase Mk VI
Desert Bus for Hope 2024	2023-11-08					$	$

All times are Pacific Standard Time; all amounts raised are US Dollars.

Appearances

Drivers & Entertainers

Name	DB1	DB2	DB3	DB4	DB5	DB6	DB7	DB8	DB9	DB10	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
Alex Steacy			●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●			●
Andy Cownden	●	●	●	●		●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●		●
Andrew Ferguson						●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Ash Vickers		●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Ashley Turner		●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Ashton Cummings		●		●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Brendan “Beej” Dery					●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Ben Ulmer									●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Bill Watt	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Cameron Lauder				●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Carrie Floyd					●	●		●		●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Chris “Fugi” Gamble					●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Coriander Dickinson				●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Erika Cole											●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Graham Stark	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Heather Dery						●		●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Ian Horner				●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Jacob Burgess												●	●	●	●	●	●
James Turner	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Jamie Dillon					●	●	●	●	●	●
Jeremy Petter	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Johnny Blakeborough			●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Jordan Hopkins								●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Kara McLachlan					●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Kate Watt		●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Kathleen De Vere	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
LeeLee Scaldaferri					●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Liz Smith					●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Matt Wiggins	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Mikey Neumann					●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Molly Lewis					●		●	●	●	●	●	●		●	●	●
Morgan vanHumbeck	●	●	●	●	●	●		●
Paul Saunders	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Serge Yager						●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Tally Heilke		●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Tara Theoharis								●	●	●
Tim Sevenhuysen		●	●	●

Volunteers & Friends of the Bus

Name	DB1	DB2	DB3	DB4	DB5	DB6	DB7	DB8	DB9	DB10	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
Alanna Bullock							●
Andre Van Slyke		●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●		●
Anubis									●
Alaina Boomer													●	●	●	●	●
Alex Ashman									●
Alex Eastveld													●	●	●		●
Alexandra Eastveld													●	●	●	●	●
Alister McVeigh													●	●
Amber “Phedran” Campbell										●
Az Martin											●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Ben Wilkinson								●
Blake Hodson							●	●			●
Brad Moran										●
Brendan “Jeeves” Baker							●	●	●	●
Brent Stewart						●	●	●
Brett Johnson												●	●	●	●	●	●
Chris Usher	●	●						●									●
Chris Whitman	●	●	●	●	●
Colin Benjamin											●	●	●	●	●		●
Cory McElrea												●	●	●	●	●	●
Cullen “CaffeinatedLemur” Auerbach										●
Dan Floyd								●					●
Dan Wu							●		●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Emily Jarrett								●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Eric Jarrett								●
Felix Kramer							●	●	●	●
Graham Fielding									●
Helen Cowart									●
Ian “Dix” Dixon					●	●	●	●		●	●
Ian Jacek						●	●						●
Jason Chinnock									●	●				●	●	●	●
Jen Carling													●	●	●	●	●
Jess Bell						●	●		●
Jo Stinson								●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Joe Trollo										●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
John Bates									●
John Gardiner											●
Juliana Cooper									●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Kate Stark	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Kelly Clark						●	●	●
Kelly Voorhaar									●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Kolin Toney											●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Kroze		●		●	●	●
Lindsay Luft										●	●
Logan Wiltse											●		●	●	●		●
Louis Moga								●	●
Martin “Map” Pittenauer											●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Matthew Murray						●	●
Matt Griffiths								●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Matthews												●	●	●	●	●	●
Max Loy								●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Meagan Hogg										●	●	●					●
Mia Steinberg					●	●	●	●	●	●	●		●
Mike Buland												●	●	●	●	●	●
Mike Whitaker							●	●	●	●
Morgan Llewellyn												●	●	●	●
Nina Scott												●	●	●
Paxton Grill									●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Peter Fulker									●
Peter Smit													●	●	●		●
Pika						●	●	●	●	●		●
PJ Martin											●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Rek Feldman								●	●		●	●	●	●	●		●
Rob Machen												●	●
Robin Rose		●	●	●	●	●	●	●		●	●	●
Ross Cubbon					●							●
Sara Chicazul													●	●	●
Sarah Mendiola							●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Sarah Toney												●	●	●	●	●	●
Shandi Shiach							●
Shawn Morford											●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Simon Afek								●
Sol Kauffman							●
Soraya Een Hajji															●	●	●
Steve Dengler					●	●	●		●			●			●		●
Tabitha Sheehan												●	●	●	●
Taylor “TQ” Quinn													●	●	●	●	●
Thomas Ourada							●	●	●	●				●	●
Tim Lindvall									●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●

● = Driver / Entertainer, ● = Appearance / Visitor / Volunteer, ● = Guest / Call-in Appearance

Desert Bus for Hope

1 (2007) – 2 (2008) – 3 (2009) – 4 (2010) – 5 (2011) – 6 (2012) – 7 (2013) – 8 (2014) – 9 (2015) – 10 (2016)

(11) 2017 – (12) 2018 — (13) 2019 — (14) 2020 — (15) 2021 — (16) 2022 — (17) 2023 — (18) 2024

Desert Bus Lexicon