If you’re on the road and hear the sounds of a ukulele gently wafting out the windows of a tricked-out, green Harvester school bus, close behind you'll see us – a group of 12 college students rocking and rolling across the country this summer out to educate the world about alternative fuels.

Everyone on our team brings something special to the Big Green Bus.  Sure Drago plays the ukulele, but you may want to go ask Alice how she managed to ski out her bedroom window. Ro is so short she has to sit on a phone book to see over the steering wheel. But the cool thing is that she's one of the magnificent seven – that means she's one of seven bussers who can drive the bus because she's at least 21 – old enough to get a commercial driving license.  Addie has almost lost her sense of smell, which makes her one of our top picks for dumpster dives – but more on that in a moment. John (aka “Cheesebeard”) is the only man on the planet who looks good in socks and sandals.  Andrew has regular dreams about the Bus and wakes up unable to distinguish fact from fiction.   Bennet, head engineer and veggie troubleshooter (that is an official title) can do splits in all three directions – just let your mind wander on that one.

Meet the rest of us (Lauren, Elysa, Bennet, Nate, Trey, Kevin) - we're juniors and just graduated seniors (in desperate need of a job, I might add) from Dartmouth who are out to change the world by changing the fuel for OUR generation on OUR terms!

We don't just talk the talk – we walk the walk, or in our case, drive the bus.  We like to think of ourselves as the Jack Kerouacs of a new generation and invite you to jump onboard – virtually, that is – follow our story and help us spread the buzz about energy solutions.

Encourage us when we become overpowered by funk (and we use the term loosely – it could be the smell of veggie oil pulled from a less-than-ideal culinary institution or helping us suss out what to do when the BGB breaks down on a hot day.)  Hey, did we mention that the bus has no air conditioning?

We’ll be breathing in the clean air of national parks and grooving out at the summer music scenes like Bonnaroo.  We'll be everywhere (well almost everywhere) from the state houses to the outhouses. Rolling through more than 30 states and making nearly 50 stops, we’ll spark a national dialogue about the importance of alternative energy sources and the future of our country.  We'll meet with politicians to demonstrate the importance of environmental issues to voters during this election cycle.

Remember, if you can’t make it to one of our green pit stops, you can see us and get involved here 24x7.  We need you to build our team of 12 to a team of 12,000 by sharing our story with friends and getting them to Back us.  

Your voice makes a difference and, frankly, we could use the encouragement of your messages and your responses to our Action Requests.  We’ll take just about anything… pretty much what you’d expect from any self-respecting, starving college student out to change the world.

Sold on our story?  If not, here’s more.  Our Detroit Diesel engine converted to run on vegetable waste rarely goes above 60 mph, though our record speed of 73 mph was hit on a 4 mile straightaway in Montana when we had a kick-ass tailwind behind us.  We’ll spend a ton of time (more hours than we spent cracking the books last year) explaining to skeptical passers by why this environmentally sound bus spews out thick grey smoke that smells like french fries. (Psst – it has to do with water molecules but come visit us online to get the full geeky details.)  

We can't pull up to your average oil behemoth gas station and say fill 'er up. So, we’ll dumpster dive (cue Addie). That's right, even girls have to dig the dumpsters to find veggie. We scope out restaurants to siphon off their vegetable oil. Don't worry, we usually ask first.  

The bus is wired to the nines with broadband Internet access, but thanks to our solar panels on the roof, we won’t be draining the grid.  The wi-fi will allow Arch (our Spielberg) to upload vids and pics and the rest of us to blog, reply to your messages and ask a favor or two along the way.  

Why would be put ourselves through this?  Well some of us have nothing better to do. Take our graduating seniors – they're all currently unemployed (in case I failed to mention this already). But seriously, it's because we want to make a difference and we will make a difference.

The Big Green Bus is about empowerment. It's about you!  Join us.   It's our collective “drive” that will keep this planet alive.