Desert Bus for Hope (DBFH) is an annual internet telethon by Canadian sketch comedy troupe Loading Ready Run raising money and awareness for Child's Play, a children's charity founded by Penny Arcade which donates games, gaming devices and toys to children's hospitals.

Desert Bus for Hope is a gaming marathon -- Loading Ready Run cast take shifts continually playing hour after hour (and day after day) of Penn & Teller's Desert Bus. Admittedly the most boring videogame in history, it's a minigame from the unreleased Sega title Smoke and Mirrors -- a real-time computer simulation of global thermonuclear war driving an empty bus through featureless desert between Tucson, Arizona and Las Vegas, Nevada. The bus travels at 45 miles per hour. And it pulls to the right. The trip takes approximately eight hours, and when (if!) you finally get to Vegas, you get a single point ... and the opportunity to make the return trip.

Donations to Desert Bus for Hope (all funds going directly to Child's Play) prolong game play. In 2008, DBFH raised over $70,000 playing Desert Bus for an official total of 5 days, 5 hours and 5 minutes.

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The Desert Bus for Hope craft-along aims to raise money and awareness for Desert Bus for Hope and Child's Play by --

crafting items to be auctioned or raffled off (independently, via eBay's Giving Works, or during Desert Bus for Hope) -- with proceeds going to Child's Play

crafting comfort items for donation to children's hospitals (e.g., cancer caps and blankets for patients, prayer shawls and lap rugs for families)

... and endlessly nattering about and cheerleading Child's Play and Desert Bus for Hope between now and Loading Ready Run's Desert Bus for Hope event in autumn 2009.

During our craft-along, we'll keep track of the distance we collectively 'travel' with our materials. There are approximately 585 km (363 miles) between Tucscon and Las Vegas; can we craft up that much yarn, string, fabric, wire and other materials by the time the Desert Bus for Hope rolls to a stop this year?

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Desert Bus for Hope Craft-Along 2009, because if you're stuck on a bus travelling 45 miles per hour through a pixelated desert, you should bring along your knitting (or crocheting, or spinning, or sewing, or chain maille, or ~whatever~ craft project).
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Desert Bus for Hope craft-along 2009, starting in March. Because it takes a heck of a lot longer to get from Tucson to Las Vegas by knitting needle (or crochet hook, or spindle, or sewing machine, or ~whatever~ craft tool) than by bus ... even a bus that travels at 45 miles per hour ... and constantly pulls to the right.
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Join us on Ravelry:
http://www.ravelry.com/groups/desert-bus-craft-along