The Idea
I want to get a medium sized School Bus or Party Bus and convert part of it to an RV (for me and other Homeless Steemians to live in) and have part of it with seating for Fellow Steemians when we go to Meetups and so forth. The bus would be Wrapped with Steemit Promotional Material to help Promote Steemit and drive new members to this amazing community.
Once the Bus is acquired and completely setup and wrapped we would acquire my our Passports and begin traveling around All of the America's (that we can legally drive to) visiting fellow Steemians/Meetups and writing about it. We would post all the travels in the Steemit RV/Bus to Steemit along with tons of Pictures and Videos.
About Me:
I have been an active (for the most part) Steemian for 1+ years now. I absolutely love the platform and recently became homeless. I am no longer capable/willing to work in the Transportation Industry (former truck driver). So now I live in my 1996 Ford Econoline Conversion Van. It is a real piece of crap and will soon die on me completely. Thinking about what I will do next has lead me to this idea.
Why am I doing this?
To be honest and fair, I am asking for donations to acquire the RV/Bus for two reasons:
- One I need a place to live (and so do a few other Steemians) and absolutely am determined to make a life for myself outside of the Transportation Industry.
- I whole heartedly believe in Steemit and am determined to make Steemit Great Again (okay greater than it already is).
What I will use the donations for!
All donations that are accompanied by a Memo or Note saying: "Crowd Funding" will be held until there is enough to acquire the RV/Bus. Any donations over what is needed to get the RV/Bus will go towards remodeling the RV/Bus, making any needed upgrades and repairs, acquiring the Wrap for the Bus (which I will do a future post near that time to let Steemians Design the Wrap) and acquire my passport. If there are any donations left, after all that, they will be used to travel around meeting other steemians.
What if there aren't enough Donations?
If after 30 days from posting this post there are not enough Donations to acquire the RV/Bus I will Refund them, except those who tell me not to. For that reason I am going to only allow a few donation sources so that I can properly refund them if needed.
How can I donate?
The only donations sources I can/will accept (for reasons stated above) will be:
- Steem/SBD donations directly through Steemit, Inc. - You can go to your Wallet and select Transfer. Make sure to use the memo "Crowd Funding" so I can refund the donation if needed! SBD Donations will be converted to Steem!
- GoFundMe Campaign - You can donate via GoFundMe here!
Why should I donate?
Well as mentioned I am currently homeless and living in a vehicle that is not long for this world. If that isn't reason enough consider this post my application for "Official Steemit Ambassador" and help Promote Steemit in a new and innovative way while simultaneously helping a homeless Steemian. In fact, I am not the only homeless Steemian so if this campaign is successful I will welcome other Homeless Steemians to join me in traveling around the America's Promoting Steemit, Inc.
How much are you trying to raise?
I believe I can get a descent RV/Bus, get it wrapped, get my passport and get on the road for $25,000 USD or less. With that in mind I have setup the GoFundMe campaign to raise that amount. When Steem/SBD donations come in I will add them to the GoFundMe campaign and once $25,000 is reached I will end the GoFundMe campaign. I will document and post every step of the process of Crowd Funding and Acquiring the RV/Bus so that you will be kept up to date. As you can see I do 3-4 posts a day already so there will be no issues keeping Steemians informed of the progress on this campaign.
Donations Received So Far:
Total Donations (to date):
- 176.02 Steem (approximately $223.54 at current market price)
Thanks for the donations everyone who has donated, thanks for the votes and resteems to everyone else!
Update #1
In order to keep better track of donations any SBD donations I receive I am converting to Steem. That way I do not get donations of SBD confused with Earned SBD from my posts. Those SBD donations I convert will be shown above in both original amounts and converted amounts.
Update #2
Campaign is blowing up on Twitter (will replace image below every so often to show traffic to Tweet)
Update #3
Been thinking a lot about what kind of RV/Bus to get for the Homeless Steemit Ambassador Bus and I think something like this would be perfect. You can pick them up in great condition for $10-15,000 USD and they usually have Water/Power Systems already installed which would make converting it easy to convert to a Home on Wheels for Homeless Steemians.
I am a proud supporter of minnowsupportproject (aka minnowsupport), if you haven't already joined check them out over on their Discord Channel by clicking below:
Disclaimer: I realize this is probably wishful thinking, but you never know if you don't try. With that said here is my attempt. Please read entire post before Flagging/Voting/Commenting/Resteeming. Thanks!
I sympathize with your plight, and admire your will to keep striving and not let yourself be defeated by bad circumstances. What a great idea to turn a negative into a positive!
I just sent you a 100 Steem donation towards your goal. Good luck, hope you reach it! But even if you don't, no need for a refund. Just make good use of the Steem.
Thanks man, I really appreciate the support. Did you notice I thanked you above before you even had a chance to comment here.....
I didn't notice that, but I do now that you point it out. :-) You are quite welcome! I'm looking forward to seeing how this turns out for you. Hopefully it will have a happy ending!
That is very lovely of you.
I would love to help you, the thing that you propose is so much better than a job in the corporate world. I am all about freedom brother! I am a free man myself, I know how it is to live without an income but I love your idea and want to support you.. may your dreams come into reality my homeless brother..:) it wont be a big number but every bit helps.. Upvoted, followed and resteemed!
WOW! This is truly amazing. I love the concept of it. I hope in the future of Steem we'll have so many different charitable paths.
hey buddy love the idea. i was thinking about buying a mini bus as well. if you want you could make this goal much more achievable, you really dont need anywhere close to 25k to make this happen.
use searchcraigslist to look outside your immediate area and you can probably find a mini bus with under 150k miles for well under 5k if you look around hard, it should be in decent running condition as well.
now if your goal is to get started as quickly as possible you could literally spend a hundred or two on 2x4's build some bunk beds, maybe get a camping toilet and a pump sink and be on your way and worry about the finishing touches later.
if you want it to be a bit more well put together i think with a week or two and about 5k you could have a really nice bus with flooring, a composting toilet, maybe a mini fridge run off propane and some bunk beds.
i would say this can easily be done for under 10k.
best of luck hope you get it off the ground as im looking to do something similar myself and would love some cool ideas for layout
Excellent Suggestions, and you are absolutely correct the bus/conversion won't cost anywhere near 25k. I am actually expecting about $15k for the bus and conversion, another $1k to re-title as an RV and get insurance on it, $1k to wrap it in Steemit Promotional Advertisements and $3k for unforeseen repairs/maintenance that will need to be done soon into the trip (call this the "Oh Shit Money" for a grand total of only $20k. The other $5k in the Campaign is just to make sure we have enough to get the Steemit Bus rolling in case anything happens and things don't go as expected with the aforementioned figures.
Thats actually a good plan. I bet it will get you out of the streets fast and probably a lot of other people as well. Especially by promoting steemit you help us all to grow with it and change the life of many people as you go and grow.
Well thought!
I don't have much in the way of Steem, but I appreciate what you are doing so I sent you a small donation in Steem!
Thanks for the 1 SBD Post Promotion! Everything helps!
I am not in the position to donate as I am currently scraping the barrel just to live. But I wish you the best and am already following you awaiting new posts.
The trip sounds amazing and I hop you do it :)
Me too....I can't wait to get on the road (hopefully with other Homeless Steemians) and travel around to Steemit Events and meet other Steemians!
This is a great Idea :D I am reyunking
Upvoted and sent 10SBD - will resteem after my morning wrap!
Truck and trailer may come in cheaper and be in better shape. I'll contribute once I get some rewards in. My 40cents won't help you now.
I have a Class A CDL so a large rig is possible, but affording the maintenance and fuel would be a much bigger headache.
But a Small Bus with a Tow behind crew trailer might be a viable option.
I was thinking more along the lines of a Ford 150/RAM 1500 ($5-7k) with an enclosed trailer that can be purchased for $3k and remodelled however you want. That would also let you run hauls for people if you needed. Kinda like this but with dual axel.
That is a great idea, but if I was gonna do that I would want a Fifth Wheel or Goose Neck trailer....less sway and easier to tow.
What I don't like about fifth wheel/gooseneck is it takes up room in the truck bed and you can't put a cap on. There's a contraption you can attach to a normal hitch to tow one but it looks retarded.
I get that, but Fifth wheels do not sway (uncontrollably) like bumper pulls tend to do. They are much more stable, less fuel mileage though!
I've never driven with one due to the truck cap issue. It can probably be remedied by one of those roll up tonneau covers. I think either way what you get depends on where you want to go. I wouldn't take any trailer or RV through the mountains but I've seen crazies do it. On open terrain the bigger the better. I'm betting you can get something off craigslist for cheap now that the season is winding down. Same with trucks. No one buys vehicles going into the winter.
Yeah I think a Bus is going to be the best option. Something designed for 40ish passengers. I will rip out the majority of seats and build in living space, kitchen, etc. Keeping only a few seats in the front to give fellow Steemians rides at Meetups and so forth.
Or run an illegal Shuttle if we need to make some money to keep traveling!
This is a great idea. I'm not quite in a position to donate but I'll resteem this!