I’m sure for most of you, it’s been a few years since you heard the ice cream truck jingle around your neighborhood. But Caleb Kruse, Cameron Kruse and Jordan Fatke, with the help of the help of National Geographic and Magnolia Ice Cream, are bringing this memory back to life with a conservation twist. These guys will be driving a biodiesel ice cream truck across the country with free ice cream to encourage children to take a conservation pledge.

ice cream

Photo Courtesy of Ice Cream Expedition

Sounds like a crazy but worthwhile cause. It all started with a friend’s innocent joke. From there, the idea took hold and grew. The brothers and friend approached National Geographic with their exciting idea and walked away with a National Geographic Young Explorer Grant (and a 1988 Chevrolet Step Van) to start their Ice Cream Expedition. With the planet in mind, the boys worked hard to convert the diesel truck to one that runs on, well, vegetable oil. Pretty amazing if you ask me. But of course, an old (albeit converted and repaired) truck is still prone to breaking down so the trio took to, you guessed it, Kickstarter to raise at least $18,000 to repair the truck on the road.

ice cream

Photo Courtesy of Ice Cream Expedition

Their journey will begin at the Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography on Thursday, July 17. From there, they’ll be driving up the West Coast, diagonally back down to Texas, along the Gulf of Mexico, back up to the Great Lakes, straight to DC and then up the East Coast to end in New York in September. Along the way, the explorers will stop at museums, parks and aquariums to talk to children and find out what children think about the planet and encourage children to pledge to explore and protect nature. If the Ice Cream Expedition isn’t visiting your city, you can also make the pledge online.

I’ve already made the pledge to plant a tree or start a garden. Conservation is a worthy cause. Whether or not you believe in global warming or forest depletion, we all have to accept that we must conserve our resources in order to sustain life on Earth. What better way to start conversations about conservation with the “kids of the future” than with an ice cream expedition?

An inspirational trio. Hope to meet y’all in Los Angeles.