.Best Benefit Concert Series: Most idealistic use of teenage energy

The Future Builders are four Oakland teens not content to inherit the Earth in whatever shape it’s left. They’ve taken a more proactive approach, seeking to improve today what will be theirs tomorrow. Along with this enviable resolve — at a time when most of their peers are struggling just to survive high school — Adam Becker, Hannah Kopp-Yates, Andrew Miller, and Zeke Nierenberg share a passion for music, and have channeled their energies through a series of benefit concerts featuring local teenage bands such as Panda, Duct Tape Mafia, and the Usual. These and other fund-raisers (including a CD compilation released earlier this year) benefit and raise awareness for a number of humanitarian and environmental organizations. The Future Builders aren’t so naive as to believe their relatively small-scale actions will save the world in a school year, but they recognize that changing a few minds today can have powerful effects down the road. That’s what building a better future is all about.