Alumnus-led bus travels for service

When UNC class of 2015 graduate Rob Jones traveled to Hawaii last summer, he didn’t visit the picturesque beaches or the typical tourist traps. 

Instead, he spent the summer volunteering in Wahiawa — a town stricken by poverty and a high crime rate. 

And it was in Hawaii, watching the sun set on a balcony with his friend Will Henly, that he decided this was the life, a life of travel and service, he wanted to continue living. 

“We still wanted to give back after we left Hawaii and find ways to help people — the phrase I use is 'put some good into the world',” he said. “It sounds simple, but that’s kind of what the bottom line is.”

When they got back to the continental United States, they started to set their plan in motion by starting The Bus, a nonprofit with the mission of documenting their 10-week, 10,000-mile journey across the United States, completing a service project in each city they stop. 

With UNC juniors Alex Hoffman, logistics intern, and Christine Bang, blogger, on board, The Bus kicked off their journey at The Miracle League of the Triangle in Cary on May 23. Bang is also a staff writer for The Daily Tar Heel. 

Together, and with the help of about 12 additional UNC students who will be picked up and dropped off along the way, The Bus will complete at least four projects a week in homeless and poverty outreach, at-risk youth, sports related activities, homebuilding and community enrichment. 

Jones and Henly, an Alamance Community College student, were seeing their dream realized. 

Jones, who has said he’s done service projects all throughout his life, used his network of friends he met through service projects to map out their trip this summer.

“It was like, ‘alright, we know this person here, this person here,’ and it kind of just grew out of control in a matter of a few days,” said Jones. “That kind of inspired the idea where we could travel the country to do service and volunteer.”

Hoffman, a business major, said that the plans for The Bus all fell into place for this year through word of mouth — but the results of this year may likely spur on the plans for the next. 

“I think once the presence becomes known, it’ll be kind of a set thing where we have specific partnered organizations in different places and there’s always places where people want to hop on and hop off from point A to point B,” he said. “It’ll definitely be a UNC thing with a lot of focus being from students at UNC, but a good presence and good partnership with organizations throughout the U.S. who always want to partner with us.”

Senior Christian Willis hopped on The Bus for just one day to volunteer with them at the N.C. Children’s Hospital, but he said he can already see the impact that it will have this summer. 

“It gave me a very different perspective on service and helping out your community,” he said. “Rob Jones has put a lot of work going into this project, and it’s really great to see his dream come true.”

For Jones, his goal is the same as it's been all along — to put some good into the world.

“I think if we can help some people, make it a little better before we head out — that’s a success.”

arts@dailytarheel.com