• Baylor grad turns double-decker bus into rolling fundraiser for orphans’ needs

    Red Bus Project at Baylor

    There’s a big, red, double-decker bus on campus today that has traveled to dozens of college campuses across the country over the last three years. At each stop, the bus galvanizes college students to raise money to serve orphans using items they have in their closets and drawers. Each campus contributes something that makes a difference for children around the globe.

    But for Emily Chapman-Richards, BA ’07, who founded the effort along with her brothers, today’s stop is a special one — Baylor is her alma mater, where she first started thinking about a new way to serve.

    As an international studies major at Baylor, Emily began to dream about how to translate her fellow students’ passion to help others into something tangible for orphans. With the help of her brothers, the Red Bus was born. The Red Bus Project is a mobile thrift shop on wheels, and a creative vehicle for raising funds and awareness for the needs of orphans around the world.

    It’s an initiative of Show Hope, a ministry started by Emily’s parents, well-known Christian recording artist Steven Curtis Chapman and his wife, Mary Beth. For Emily and her family, the plight of orphans is personal; the Chapmans welcomed two adopted children into their own family, two siblings for Emily and family that changed their lives. Show Hope raises funds that help adoptive families with adoption expenses and post-adoption programs, and advocates for orphans globally.

    This isn’t the Red Bus’ first visit to Baylor. On previous stops, Baylor students responded by donating clothes of their own and purchasing used clothing donated by others in the unique multi-floored bus/store. In just over three years, college students at Baylor and across the country have raised tens of thousands of dollars for orphan care, and many have joined the Red Bus as interns.

    The Red Bus is a case of the Baylor mission lived out because one student saw that a bus could be more than just a bus. It’s one of the many ways Baylor students have combined their passion and their creativity in a way that meets needs and benefits others; read about others here.

    Sic ’em, Red Bus Project!