We Catholics are a people of HOPE. We invite you to share hope with children who are separated - through no fault of their own - with an incarcerated parent. These children are the unintended victims of crime. They carry feelings of abandonment, shame, and fear that strip them of hope.

We invite you to help local children Get On The Bus to San Luis Obispo to visit their fathers. There are many ways you can volunteer (see the donation list and volunteer form on this page). 

Our parish-sponsored bus costs $5,000.
THANK YOU for donating!  

If you wish to donate funds, please make your check out to Holy Name of Jesus (write G.O.T.B. in the memo area). You may drop it in the offertory basket during Mass or mail it to the parish office:

The Holy Name of Jesus Parish
Get On The Bus
115 W. Olive Ave
Redlands, CA 92373

At this time, we cannot accept donations online. We are working on this for next year.

Get on the Bus is a non-profit organization that provides children with assistance and transportation to visit their mothers or their fathers who are in prison in California.

There are over 200,000 children in California with a parent in prison; and, that HALF of them have never even met their imprisoned parent. Do you know a child in this situation? Maybe not, but you may know the grandparents, aunts, or uncles who are raising them.
 
Get on the Bus helps the children not feel forgotten, as they are the unintended victims of crime. Some of them feel guilt and shame, and these visits help alleviate some of their anxiety. But this program not only helps the children, it helps the men and the women who are incarcerated…
by giving them hope and the desire to rehabilitate.
 
The Holy Name of Jesus Parish is sponsoring a bus that will transport children from our area to San Luis Obispo on May 20, 2017 so they can visit their fathers in the men’s correctional institution. Here are some details about this trip: 

The families will leave on Friday around midnight, and will stop at a church for a welcoming breakfast before going to the prison. Busses from all over California will meet there. The children (along with a parent, grandparent, or guardian) will spend the day with their fathers before coming home late Saturday night.

The parish will provide each person a sack meal for the bus trip. Each child will receive a Travel Bag that consists of books and activities for the long trip, and a teddy bear for the emotional ride home. Upon returning, each child will receive a Stay Connected Bag that consists of stationery, envelopes, and postage that they can use to write letters to their fathers. 

THANK YOU for your generous gifts of time and money that make this trip possible. Without your support, the families we serve would be unable to make the trip to San Luis Obispo, so Thank You for reuniting families… and THANK YOU for giving them HOPE!

We are collecting specific items for the Travel Bags and the Stay Connected Bags
on the weekends of April 22-23 and 29-30.
Choose an item below and bring it to Mass with you!

FOR THE BUS RIDE 
Disposable Cameras  (so they can take photos - no cell phones allowed inside the prison)
Pens, Pencils, Crayons, Colored Pencils, Gel Pens
Coloring Books
2oz Hand Sanitizer
Hand Wipes (small packets of 10-20)
Tissues (individually-wrapped, pocket size packets)
Gatorade (individual size bottles)
Water (individual size bottles)

FOR STAYING CONNECTED AFTER THE TRIP
Notecards or Stationery with Envelopes
Postage stamps

We have also encouraged our youngest Catholics to give their favorite toys, activities, art supplies, and snacks to their peers who will ride the bus on May 20th. These items will be donated by children and teens in our Faith Formation Elementary and Confirmation programs, by teens in parish Youth Groups, and by Sacred Heart Academy students.