Red Bus Project Promotes Awareness of Orphans

Red Bus Project staffers Jani Black of Saint Louis, Dan Martin and Stewart McAlister of the Nashville area, Jordan Presley of South Carolina and Ashley West of Atlanta visited Mississippi College on Wednesday.

Rolling into the Mississippi College campus, supporters of the Red Bus Project arrived to tell students about the plight of orphans worldwide.

Reports show as many as 140 million orphans around the globe are in need of a home. There’s a new orphan added to the list every 18 seconds.

Parked outside Nelson Hall, the double decker Red Bus was the place for students to shop for shirts, shoes, and other items of clothing. Money raised will go to promote awareness campaigns about the needs of orphans on every continent.

The bus is stopping at colleges in Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas and Tennessee on the first leg of its fall tour. The Christian ministry is based in Franklin, Tennessee.

Mississippi College students hunted bargains, but also spent their dollars to spotlight a pressing issue they believe in.

“I love thrift shopping,” said MC freshman Lauren Evans of Brandon. “But this is for a cause that goes a long way.”

A social work major, freshman Sarah Lewis of Clinton purchased a T-shirt because she wants to help do her part. “Orphans are unable to help themselves.”

In a few years, Sarah would like to adopt a child needing a home.

As students shopped on the bus or under large tents on the Clinton campus, more than 1,000 new orphans were added to the world’s total, said staffer Brooke Lyle of the Red Bus Project.

As a student at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville a couple of years ago, Lyle first heard about the problems of orphans. “I knew there were orphans in the world, but I moved from awareness to action.”

The University of Tennessee graduate now works full-time for the non-profit ministry located near Nashville.

Stops at Mississippi State University and Belhaven University are also on this week’s schedule before the red bus travels Friday to Louisiana Tech. Texas A&M and Baylor will be among the campus stops in the Lone Star State.

It’s a complex issue without easy or immediate solutions. Of the 140 million orphans, at least 13 million children lost both parents, UNICEF reports.

But still, the MC students kept coming to shop. “I want to adopt kids when I get older,” said freshman Ashley Wingerter of New Orleans.

For more information, go to redbusproject.org