via popgeezer.com

The annual Van’s Warped Tour, the longest running tour in the country, has always been one of the most community oriented also. But this year, they also lifted the bar ten-fold by creating their Unite the United Nonprofit area to give back to the community they’ve worked so hard to join together!

The 2008 Vans Warped Tour brought in some of their hottest bands like Gym Class Heroes, Jack’s Mannequin, Katy Perry, Motion City Soundtrack, Paramore, and Relient K to help support the average 21 charitable and activism tents that were set up each day. And it looks like their combined efforts all paid off in a major way, as Unite the United raised over $350,000 for charities nationwide!

But raising money wasn’t the only accomplishment this year’s Tour made. It also gathered well over 40,000 lbs. of recyclables, collected over 45,000 units of blood for blood drives, screened 6,500 concertgoers for skin cancer, and donated more than four tons of food and clothing to local homeless shelters.

And that’s STILL not all. The VWT also held two volunteer days for clean-up efforts as well. The first day, held in St. Charles, LA., brought together bands and local organizations to help rebuild homes and community centers for victims of recent hurricanes. On day two, in Monterrey Bay, CA., tour professionals came out to pick up litter, scrape invasive algae off boat docks, test water samples, and conduct site surveys to aid in our understanding of the problems facing our oceans.

Who new that a bunch of punk rockers could come together with their local communities to do so much and give back to so many?! Looks like Vans’ Tour has warped from head-bangers to hand-lenders 