Sean Penn's Activist Caravan On the Road to New Orleans

By Julie Jordan

Originally posted Thursday May 01, 2008 05:00 PM EDT

Blogger Pat Pedraja, 12, in front of the bus – and Sean Penn Photo by: Pat Pedraja

Traveling in three bio-diesel buses, more than 150 activists – including, most notably, Sean Penn – departed the Coachella music festival in Indio, Calif., this week, en route to New Orleans.

Known as The Dirty Hands Caravan (they're blogging about their journey at dosomething.org, the group gathered at the festival over the weekend and Penn appeared on the mainstage, inviting the audience (and all others interested) to spontaneously join and, well, do something. "Revolution is a job for the young," Penn said. "This is the smartest, most technologically proficient generation of all time. This idea that I had was based on no experience necessary."

The buses are journeying 1,800 miles by week's end, stopping in numerous cities. On Tuesday, the caravan visited the Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation in Tucson and participated in an HIV awareness march thru parts of downtown and the University of Arizona campus. The group then proceeded to Las Cruces, N.M., where they camped and heard from 12-year-old Pat Pedraja, who is battling leukemia and raising money for bone marrow transplants.

(The photo features Penn and blogger Pat Pedraja, who created One Child's Dream/Driving For Donors at 11 years old after being diagnosed with Leukemia.)

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