A camera, a computer and more than 53 families from across the nation are key ingredients in Justin Sailor's self-created Hometown Invasion Tour.
Sailor, a 2006 MSU graduate, hopes to begin the tour in August and will stay with a family for five days in each state. He will document the experiences with photos and journals, which will be available on his Web site, www.hometowninvasion.com, he said.
The tour is a project Sailor came up with to integrate his love of photography, web design and writing with his bachelor's degrees in sociology and advertising.
"What I really want to take out of it, and bring other people, is not (to) stereotype, not look at people as strangers, but look at people as neighbors," Sailor said.
Sailor said he first had the idea for the tour last summer, although at the time he only considered it a "big dream."
"College students are so encouraged to go abroad; we are not really encouraged to see our own country," said Sailor, who spent a summer on an MSU study abroad trip in England and Scotland. "I told myself I am not going to go abroad again until I see my own country."
As the year progressed, Sailor discussed the logistics of the nine- to 12-month trip with several of his professors, who encouraged him to start the project.
"I met Justin, he told me about his dream job (the tour)," said Richard Cole, chairman of the Department of Advertising. "It's never been done before, and I think it's going to be a Guinness Book of World Records kind of event."
Though Cole has helped make some contacts for potential sponsors and automakers to provide Sailor with a car for his trip, he said Sailor has done everything else on his own.
"It's only fitting that a man named 'Sailor' would have so much wanderlust in his blood," Cole said.
To raise money for the tour, Sailor set up two types of sponsorship: advertising on his Web site and personal sponsorship of a state.
"I estimated gas and food on the road would cost $5,500," Sailor said. Alaska accounts for 17 percent of the land mass in the United States — so it's 17 percent of the cost, he said. Individuals can sponsor his trip in a particular state by paying a set price posted on his Web site.
Alaska costs $979 to sponsor, and smaller states, such as Maine, cost $52.
"That $5,500 is strictly for gas and food on the road," Sailor said.
He said the individual sponsorship has gone well, but it's the larger advertisers to cover expenses such as equipment and a car that are worrying him.
"My car — it's great, but I don't think it will make it to all 50 states," Sailor said.
To find families to stay with in each state, Sailor said he is encouraging everybody he knows to nominate people who inspire them. A page on the Web site will allow visitors to nominate a town, and he said two towns will be chosen in California because of the state's size.
"I'm trying to find unique people," Sailor said. "Maybe it's their job, background or unique interest or hobby they have."
He also said part of the trip is allowing a little , too.
"I do want to set aside a few states that I don't know who I am going to stay with, for the sake of adventure," he said.
Sailor said he waited six months before he told his parents about the tour because he wanted to gather more information about it.
"I must admit, at first I was skeptical ... but then he sent us an eight-page proposal," said his mother, Nancy Sailor. "He always did know what he was passionate about while growing up. When he was passionate about something, he would pursue it."
