#et2021

(For those who want the “whole” story…..)

8-23-21

As many of you know, after an amazing time in Akron, Ohio, working with our long standing incredible local partners to #BringTheLove and #MakeADifference, through music, actions sports, and the arts; The East Coast tour team awakened Saturday morning to discover that the main staff vehicle and production trailer had been stolen from the parking lot of the facility they were staying at!

It would only be a matter of hours before a phone call from the Police Department would inform us that the awesome new van (recently donated to us by our dear Brothers and Sisters at SODAK Skate) had been found….engulfed in flames…. completely destroyed. Nothing recoverable.

Not only was this vehicle the primary transportation for the entire leadership team and staff for that leg of the tour, but the trailer contained literally every piece of production, staging, and gear that has been assembled over the years for the East Coast team to use to present these events; Free community celebrations that are meant to bring people together in underserved and often overlooked communities.

And..... on top of the loss of all of the tour production equipment and gear, as the event had been packed up late the night before, the van and trailer also contained almost ALL of the current artists' instruments and support gear!

The van was destroyed. The trailer was gone.

(Selah: Pause and Reflect)

This tour has always been an ambitious effort, only made possible through the incredible sacrifice and hard work of literally hundreds of people every year. It is a truly organic grassroots project, with every member of the team, from the local partners, to the artists, to the staff, to the leadership (from top to bottom), serving completely as volunteers, receiving no salary and raising their own support to fund their involvement.

Everyone who serves, does so freely, and relatively quietly, not seeking recognition or applause as much as seeking to help the most helpless among us.......

To be honest..... Helpless was definitely a feeling that would have been logical for the staff to feel as they surveyed the empty parking lot where the van and trailer had been just a few hours before.... as the leaders in the home office got the emergency call with the report... as the West Coast members of the Board came together for the hastily arranged early morning phone conference to determine what to do and how to respond.

In almost 30 years of the Extreme Tour, nothing quite like this had ever happened before. Not on this scale...... What were we going to do?

There was a lot to consider :

How do we get our stuff back?

With the van destroyed, how do we even get to the next city?

And, even if you could, How do you keep touring with no production or staging?..... with NO INSTRUMENTS ???

(capitalization for emphasis, not for added volume 😉)

And of course, Who would even want to go on to the next city after having all their gear stolen ???

If the artists leave (and who would blame them if they did ?); How to continue without the artists that perform during the events ????

Was this THE END of the East Coast leg of the Extreme Tour ???

(Dramatic Pause that was, admittedly, way too real in "Real Life" as we spent the first moments pondering these and all the other questions that flooded our minds.)

As the initial shock wore off, though; From coast to coast, from top to bottom; The leaders, the staff, the artists; We all came to a quick consensus.

The “End” ?

No.

Decidedly. Definitively….. Determinedly.

WHY NOT?:

When we first hit the road this Summer, East Coast or West Coast teams, we were responding to a Divine Call that thundered inside us. We always knew this was about way more than music.

It was about a Mission: To carry Hope. To DEMONSTRATE Love. Not just declare it.

TOGETHER. Making a difference.

We had spent the last two months traveling across the United States, going to inner cities and skate parks, the forgotten corners of small towns, “seeing and celebrating”, in action, those that have grown used to feeling “left behind”.

This had been a hard weekend, a devastating loss, for our organization and team, for sure. But these are definitely challenging times for so many in the communities we visit. Many of the cities remaining on the schedule were familiar places for us, cities we stop in each year, filled with hurting people we have come to know and love. And there are many new friends we just haven't met yet who are longing for a glimmer of the Hope we now carry, just like we were once.

In the midst of these difficult times….Now more than ever, even; What we are called to carry matters.

We believe we are called.

We’ve been sent.

We will go.

So, Focus was set, shoulders were squared, calls were made, friends from nearby cities sent vehicles to carry us, and off we went to the next city, trusting God to make a Way…..

(Shoutout here to our dear friends in New Castle, PA, who sent vehicles to fetch us, who gathered gear to facilitate the community event there… and then even loaned some of it to us for the rest of the tour (!).... Who encouraged us with their deep love and support as we picked up the pieces and carried on…)

Like we have learned it often does, it helped, in the midst of the difficult moments, to focus on serving others, to give ourselves to the Divine Calling God has placed on our lives. This was so much better than a melancholy gaze fixed on a crisis that could seem to be swallowing us.

And while we were serving, God was, unsurprisingly, moving.

It started with the most unlikely of phone calls on Sunday afternoon, more than 24 hours after the theft.

An anonymous tip had been submitted from some unknown “source on the street”…... ….Friends of a friend had explored the authenticity of the information…. They claimed that our trailer had been FOUND!!!

And to top it off, they suspected that stuff might STILL BE IN IT !!!

It seemed unlikely. Too good to be true, even. When the van is torched and the trailer has vanished, it is usually permanent, we’d been advised. But by the time news trickled back to us, we were told the trailer was definitely secured, and maybe even in transit.

Piece by piece, we received this information until…... sure enough….. the trailer was pulled, by a hastily assembled small crew of various friends, into the venue of the event in the next city, where we were!!! It was a miraculous moment, for sure! We finished wrapping up the event and then set about methodically examining the trailer and the contents.

Yes, there were definitely still missing items of real significance. There were still real losses, beyond just the major loss of the van. (We can talk about those in a minute.) But, piece by piece, victory by victory, we were finding precious, even critical pieces of the tools and equipment we use for the Mission we’re on!

All the staging…. RECOVERED!

All the sound equipment we use….. RECOVERED!

All the lighting….. RECOVERED!

All the trussing….. RECOVERED!

All the “In Ear” Monitor Equipment…… RECOVERED!

All the banners and signage….. RECOVERED!

All the percussion instruments…… RECOVERED!

An artist’s cherished, irreplaceable “First Guitar”....RECOVERED!

Other guitars, including a rare and extremely valuable collectible guitar…. RECOVERED!

The BRAND NEW Generator that HAD JUST BEEN DONATED the city before….. RECOVERED!

The BRAND NEW trailer ITSELF…… (Say it with me) RECOVERED!

I know, I know… So much capitalization.

Think I’m getting carried away?

No. Definitely not.

We knew the initial losses were, for us, staggering. The truth is, we even understated the losses when sharing them online as we knew much of what was lost was beyond what could be replaced and would likely have to be “written off”. We limited our recovery goal to just the essentials that were necessary to continue.

Some of the production equipment, for example, are professional pieces of equipment that had been donated and could not typically be found in the limited quantities we carry. Normally, they had to be purchased as part of “packages” much larger than we could ever afford. We imagined that the great improvements that had been made to our presentation over the past few years were likely gone for good.

What an incredible blessing to have that equipment restored!

God is so good!

And He deserves the Glory and Honor for all He has done!

So, we are committed to give Him praise, to declare the good report, Restoration by Restoration,

#VictoryByVictory!

Many of you have been following the journey of this collaborative effort even before this theft occurred. You have tracked the East and West Coast teams as they have traveled to the 58 cities they have visited so far this year. You have seen the pictures, and read the stories, of the thousands of people impacted by this effort to carry God’s Love and bring people together. We hope you have celebrated with us, Victory by Victory, all that God has been doing.

Perhaps some reading this have just recently begun watching what was happening, engaged by the startling incidents over this past weekend. If that’s you, hopefully you now, too, are celebrating with us, all the Victories that are unfolding, even in the midst of what started as incredibly disheartening hardship.

Carried away? No. Not to us. Not at all.

Celebrating Victory.

Lifting up Praise!

Convinced: He’s worthy.

This is the response we have decided to choose, to what seemed like one of the most devastating material losses in Extreme Tour history.

Rather than focusing on the property that was destroyed or remains unrecovered at this moment, we’re skipping ahead to the celebration of all God has done IN THE MIDST of this trial. (Example: The miraculous recovery of the trailer with so much of the contents still inside it!)

We’re focused on giving Him Praise for all He is STILL DOING even now, as the recovery continues to unfold. (Example: another artist’s cherished $ 4,000.00 guitar still missing even after the trailer was inventoried….. REPLACED BY A DONOR!)

And, we’re determined to continue to celebrate all that God IS GOING TO DO as we continue on with the schedule of cities that remain.

The communities that will still be impacted despite the enemy’s plans to have stopped this,

The people we will still get to carry Love to with artists that DIDN'T GIVE UP and with so much equipment that WAS RESTORED!

And especially with recovery and restoration we can see just on the horizon! (Example: The impending replacement of the tour van, because of the generosity of so many of you who have contributed, likely just a small number of donations away! Maybe even closer if we can find a deal.)

These are all victories to us.

And we want to #MakeVictoryViral!

This seems a much better thing to focus on with these posts and updates, right ? We’ve all seen enough depressing news lately, yeah ?

So what if we decided to all do this together ?

You AND us ?

What if, in the days and weeks to follow, we use this space to publicly tell the story of the great things God is doing as we go from city to city ? What if you join us by replying back with the stories of all God is doing as you go about the life and Calling God has given you ?

What if we celebrated all these things

TOGETHER ?

#VictoryByVictory !

Here’s our commitment to you, and a friendly challenge as well:

Let’s #MakeVictoryViral !

Let’s go back and forth here, telling the stories, carrying the good report of all God is doing in and around us.

Let’s share the good things and carry the #GoodNews here online, where people can #SeeAndCelebrate with us!

Let’s practice, in the hard times, serving others and watching for what God will do, and what Victory He might bring!

Let’s start now.

REMAINING CHALLENGES:

Like I reported earlier, there are still some significant items of valuable property missing. These are not small losses, and, as a collaborative effort of a diverse group of volunteers, the damage has been done to multiple parties, not just to the organization.

Several have asked about the possibility that insurance will cover the losses. While some items *might* be covered by existing insurance according to the conversations and research done so far by the parties affected, coverage may be problematic as the items are all owned by different parties and are not covered by one policy since they are, in many cases, personal property not owned by one party.

Where coverage does exist, deductibles are a potential issue as well as valuation of items insurance companies may not honor the true value of, such as the rare guitars that were stolen. It is our hope to see each damaged party made whole. Where insurance is an option, it is certainly being pursued.

However, there are some items that will likely not be covered. For example: The van, which does represent the greatest loss remaining, was insured for the travel, but was not covered for this kind of loss, in this kind of way. It will not be covered by insurance. There is also an artist, who sustained a loss of musical equipment, that did not have insurance that would cover their loss. There are also some having trouble as they explore the coverages they did think they had. Filing claims, we are learning, can be tricky.

Thank you for your prayers, for favor with the agents, for those able to file a claim. And thank you for your prayers, for recovery, for those who have suffered losses that do not have coverage for those losses.

We do believe God knows our needs, and hears our prayers. We trust Him to continue to take care of each of us, for sure.

And, as He moves and provides, we will continue to celebrate what He’s done right here, with all of you. We will continue to work to #MakeVictoryViral!

WANT TO HELP?

So many of you have been so kind to submit a donation to help with the effort to recover and become fully functional again. We thank you all so much for your Love, Support, and Encouragement. It means more than you know. You are truly, to us, being the Hands and Feet of God to help meet these needs.

Should anyone want to help us reach the goal we have set in order to fully recover, donations can continue to be submitted, over the next couple weeks, through the fundraiser that has been set up on Facebook, or through the support page, at the link located on the top bar of our website: www.theExtremeTour.Com/Support .

Our plan is to use the funds that are donated to recover the needs in three phases, prioritized by what is necessary to become fully functional, in the work we are doing, as quickly as possible.

PHASE ONE:

Purchase of a van so the team can get from city to city. (Approx. $15,000.00)

PHASE TWO:

Recovery of the stolen tablets necessary to run the systems. (Approx. $ 750.00)

Recovery of bass guitar for use by artists at events. (Approx. $700.00 to $800.00 due to endorsement discount)

PHASE THREE:

Recovery of remaining stolen personal property, prioritized by those with no alternate insurance or recovery option, followed by assistance with insurance deductibles for those who can file successful claims.

(For complete list, see below)

For those that are interested in helping with a particular need; Below, please find a list of the specific items or equipment that remains unrecovered after the destruction of the van and the inventory of what was left in the trailer after it was recovered.

⁃ Line6 James Tyler Variax Guitar ($1200)

⁃ Line 6 Pod Go ($500)

⁃ Artist Pedal Board ($1400)

⁃ Line 6 Firehawk ($400)

⁃ American Fender J Bass ($1200)

⁃ Les Paul Guitar ($1600)

⁃ Ipad ($450)

⁃ Android Tablet ($300)

⁃ (2) Athlete Pro Scooters ($650)

⁃ Athlete Skateboard/Helmet ($100.00)

⁃ Artist Equipment Case ($150.00)

⁃ Production Tool boxes ($300)

⁃ Various Production Materials ($100)

⁃ Event Tents and Tarps ($420)

Thank you for taking the time to read through this comprehensive and detailed update. God bless you all.