How skilled are you at letting go? It’s a challenge for most of us in this day and age. We are, most of us, control freaks, and even if someone else holds the reins, we still want to know where we are going.
Throw all that control out the window and hop on board The Do Good Bus, a mystery mode of community volunteering in Los Angeles. A group of strangers (who will become co-workers and friends before day’s end) boards a bus and heads to an unknown volunteer program site where they will spend a day doing a community work project. The stealth and surprise elements add a new level of fun and camaraderie—we’re all in this together.
Local non-profits in the neighborhoods visited set up the work day, and the bus unloads and teams get down to work. Sometimes it is a school bus, sometimes a city-type bus, sometimes a fancy charter–again, the variables are part of the fun. Projects have included assembling sports equipment for kids, painting community and school murals, community garden work, sorting and organizing donations, projects with homeless shelters, and projects with animals and rescues. Each trip is different and each location kept under wraps.
The bus tours have three main goals: Create awareness, create a community, and inspire us to keep on finding ways to be involved long after the bus trip has finished. Public community rides typically happen once a month, on a Saturday, and last for four-ish hours. You can purchase lunch through the program or bring your own. The day costs $35, and a portion of that fee goes to the non-profit you will be serving that day. Got a group? Book a specialized group trip on the Do Good Bus (AWESOME birthday party idea!)
Change by Doing 