Local & Community
SunLine Transit Unveils New 'Butterfly Bus' Honoring Coachella Valley's Ophelia Mentorship Program
A new SunLine Transit Agency bus is officially hitting the road with a vibrant message of community empowerment and youth mentorship. Local leaders, mentors, and students gathered at SunLine’s headquarters on Wednesday, June 24, 2026, for a formal ribbon-cutting ceremony to unveil a custom bus wrap dedicated to the John F. Kennedy Memorial Foundation’s acclaimed Ophelia Program.
Dubbed the "Butterfly Bus," the eye-catching transit design serves as a rolling tribute to the long-running Coachella Valley initiative, which provides critical mentorship, leadership training, and essential life skills to young women across the region. The exterior artwork prominently incorporates the program's signature butterfly logo alongside photographic portraits of local women leaders and successful program alumnae who have gone on to build impactful careers.
Organizers and participants expressed high hopes that the mobile billboard will significantly raise public awareness for the program as it traverses normal daily routes throughout the valley. One high school student participating in the project noted the long-term community value of the visual outreach campaign.
"I just know that this is gonna be really great for the community because someone might see the bus and say, 'What is that? What are those butterflies? What is the Ophelia Project?'" she explained. "And then they search it up and they're going to find this program that is built and meant to benefit all these young girls' lives while they're still in high school. So I'm really looking forward to the positive impact that this bus is going to make on the lives of so many high school-aged girls around the community."
Originally founded in 2002 with just 13 girls at a single school site, the Ophelia Program has grown into a powerful team-based mentoring framework operating across multiple school districts during the standard academic day. Over its 24-year history, the program has successfully trained and certified more than 1,000 professional women mentors and served more than 7,000 vulnerable adolescent girls in grades 8 through 12. Focusing heavily on social-emotional health, academic accountability, and career readiness, the foundation boast a 100% high school graduation rate among its participants, successfully guiding young women toward higher education while actively working to break generational cycles of poverty.
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By: NBC Palm Springs
June 24, 2026
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