Road Trip
WHILE SOME STUDENTS WERE PUR- suing .other activities in celebration of spring, 13 undergraduates spent up to eight hours a day painting, cleaning and remodeling an old school bus. Picking up on a successful trip from last summer, the group was renovating the Big Green Bus (BGB), a vehicle that runs on waste vegetable oil and will travel cross-country this summer educating people about alternative fuels. Elliot May 'O6, general manager of the bus project, says that while the group is "aware that waste vegetable oil may not be the most efficient fuel of the future, we hope that in carrying out our two-and-a-half-month trek, we can instill awareness that there is indeed a very serious problem looming."
Changes have been made since last summer, when the bus toured in conjunction with a series of ultimate Frisbee tournaments in which the student riders participated. Now the bus is more efficient-thanks to a combination of electric heaters and coolant routing to warm the waste vegetable oil. While last year's trip included only Frisbee players June graduates and environmental studies or engineering students, this year's team is a mix of individuals who want to inspire change and make the BGB an inclusive, enduring part of Dartmouth. The aim of the 2006 BGB tour is not only to promote sustainable energy but also to promote sustainable relationships with Dartmouth.
To foster such ties, those traveling on the bus will interview alumni along its route and compile profiles to be posted on the BGB Web site, thebiggreenbus.org. The stories will include those of alums working in environment-related careers.
The bus' route, which also will be posted on its Web site, will take it from Hanover to California and back with scheduled stops including St. Louis, San Francisco, Colorado Springs and Salt Lake City. "Education has the ability to empower," May says. "The Big Green Bus originated simply as an idea, but once passion for education and organization were added to the mix, it very quickly developed into a vehicle for change."
