Multi-Platinum selling band Switchfoot concluded its 34-city Appetite for Construction Tour with Relient K and Ruth in Everett, WA Dec. 3. The benefit tour that hit such major markets as New York City, Los Angeles, Houston, Atlanta, Baltimore, Dallas and more, raised over $100,000 for Habitat for Humanity, a non-profit organization that seeks to eliminate poverty housing and homelessness from the world, and to make decent shelter a matter of conscience and action.
With an average of over 3,000 tickets sold per night, and raising one dollar for every ticket sold for Habitat for Humanity, the impact of the tour leaves a lasting legacy. All of the money raised is going directly back into the local Habitat affiliates in each of the 34 tour markets.
In addition to the monetary contribution, Switchfoot members swapped their musical instruments for building tools and worked side by side with future Habitat homeowners at several build sites across the country, including sites in San Diego, Houston, Seattle (Everett, WA) and Baton Rouge. The band further met with and gave tickets to top Habitat for Humanity volunteers in tour markets.
“[Our fans have bought] a lot of tickets and CDs and T-shirts and stickers and you leave a tour with those sorts of numbers and people say that’s a successful tour. I disagree. That doesn’t mean anything,” says Switchfoot frontman Jon Foreman in an interview with the Charleston Daily Mail. “I want us to have a touring history that has impacted people in other ways than selling them a product. To plug them into an amazing organization like Habitat is an honor. For us it’s a chance to donate more than money...if people can’t donate money, they can still use their hands to help.”
Switchfoot guitarist, keyboardist Jerome Fontamillas echoed in an interview with the Mobile Register that Habitat for Humanity’s focus and efficiency are what won the band’s support. “The thing that excites me about Habitat is the idea that it is local. They’ve got an incredibly tight ship as far as how much of the money actually goes directly into the houses. The thing that blew me away the most is that they’ve housed more than a million people around the planet.”
“One of the beauties about Habitat for Humanity is that there is virtually an endless range of opportunities for people to contribute—and to become part of the solution. Our friends in Switchfoot are an inspiring example of this,” says Habitat for Humanity CEO Jonathan Reckford. “Not only are they financially supporting our work with families in need of decent, affordable shelter, but they’ve also worked hard on Habitat build sites to engage in that part of Habitat’s effort. Even beyond that, they’re providing a strong voice—both literally and figuratively—for so many families whose housing plights go too often unheard. Habitat is very grateful and very proud of the friend we have in Switchfoot.”