NOLS Bus Kicks off Second Season

The first leg of the “NOLS on the Road: Finding Tomorrow’s Leaders” bus tour began at last year’s Outdoor Retailer Show. The goal? To spread the news of the National Outdoor Leadership School and to bring elements of the school’s outdoor skills, leadership and environmental education to communities around the country.

One year, 38 states, and 15,508 visitors later, the bus has logged over 25,000 miles running on Recycled Vegetable Oil (RVO)-not biodiesel-and it’s still going strong. The RVO is collected from restaurants that would otherwise have to find an alternate means of disposal. Slide projectors, sound system, computers and televisions all operate off solar panels mounted on the NOLS Bus’ roof.

The bus’ tenacious crew has visited more than 100 retail stores, college campuses, festivals and outdoor events, allowing visitors to boulder on the climbing wall, inspect the converted diesel engine, and apply for NOLS courses.

And this bus makes news wherever it goes, from Earth Day celebrations to travel shows. Over 200 news stories covered the bus in the first year of the tour alone, half of those being television spots.

The NOLS Bus tour isn’t done yet. SilkT has renewed their generous exclusive sponsorship of the bus for the second year of the tour. “We are thrilled to sponsor the NOLS bus and support their important mission of training tomorrow’s leaders with an environmental point of view,” states Scott Stevens, VP of marketing for Silk Soymilk.”We value our partnership with NOLS and salute their message because it underscores Silk’s commitment to promoting renewable energy.”

In addition to visits to 100 college campuses across the country, highlights for the coming season will include: September’s Farm-Aid concert (with a personal invitation from Willie Nelson!), Adventures in Travel Expos in Dallas, Anaheim, San Francisco and Chicago, and NOLS’ 40th Anniversary celebration in Lander, Wyoming in October.

Outdoor industry leader Spencor Medical Products stepped up this past year to support the NOLS Bus by providing full tuition scholarships scholarships for 15 NOLS students. Patagonia, Outdoor Research and Mountain Hardware provided raffle items that proved very popular with NOLS’ college audiences.

“In many ways this is the ideal marketing campaign,” said NOLS Marketing Director Bruce Palmer. “We are speaking face-to-face with prospective students, driving NOLS to another record enrollment year and we are introducing the NOLS brand to hundreds of thousands of people through personal contact at the bus and media coverage. All of this while living our values of outdoor skills, leadership and environmental ethics.”

Look for the NOLS Bus at the southeast entrance of the Salt Palace throughout the show. It’s big. It’s blue. It has a climbing wall. You can’t miss it!