Million Dollar Bus: A Literal “Vehicle for Change” Rolls into Newfoundland This Week

A thirty-three year old man has quit his job, sold his home, and bought an old school bus to deliver funding to community projects along his cross-country roatrip. You can help him do so by buying a $10, personalized bumper sticker on his bus. He rolled into Newfoundland this week.

The BC man, Ryan Lancaster, hopes to raise a million bucks for various “community passion projects.” As he drives across the country, he’s looking to find and fund interesting community projects with the money he raises.

His goal is to raise and disseminate a million dollars across these projects, and he aims to raise the million in a fairly practical and achievable manner, which is to sell one hundred thousand $10 stickers (augmented by private donations of more than that). He is selling off what he calls “the entire outside real estate of [my] bus, in 1 inch x 1 inch squares at $10 a piece.”

Squares contain donor’s name, their picture or a logo, and either their favourite inspiring quote or business branding. Lancaster was inspired to embark on this mission because he is “passionate about passion projects.”If they raise more than a million, he jokes, ” I guess we will have to add some more space on the bus and find some more great projects!”

He says the community passion project movement has the ability to change the lives of people across the country, but these kinds of projects struggle to secure funding and get off the ground.

“Whether it’s a social, environmental, or agricultural project, these are the people that are trying to create a really positive effect on their community. The problem is that no one is helping these inspiring ventures, and all too often their projects never get to see the light of day.”

The endeavour will fund projects in 8 broad categories: social, environmental, agricultural, artist, sports/health, entrepreneurial, cultureal, and trades, in an effort to “jumpstart projects that should exist, and that can create a powerful community impact.”

Projects will be decided upon on the basis of their sustainability, potential for success, resource requirements, action plan, and potential community impact.

Lancaster spent the summer renovating his bus in Kelowna, BC, and then launched a campaign to raise $6000 for a local community passion project (the Okanagan Makerspace — a space where anyone from the community can come for free and use tools or develop their idea for a project).

Lancaster and his 2-person crew left British Columbia two months ago. This week, they have arrived off the ferry in Newfoundland, and plan on staying in the province for three weeks, in search local community projects to work with and fundraise for.

They’re currently parked in Corner Brook, staying with a Million Dollar Bus sponsor from Sandler Training. They’ll arrive in St. John’s on Wednesday. So far they have interviews set up with:

To support Ryan’s community initiative, or to submit a project, visit his website milliondollarbus.com. You can follow Ryan’s amazing journey at Facebook.com/milliondollarbus or Instagram.com/milliondollarbus.