McMath Library's Annual Jedi Party

by: Z'Rissa

June 2, 2012

This is the fourth year that Kessel Base has joined Arkansas Crimson Nova Squad (Star Garrison) and a lot of kids at Sidney McMath Library in Little Rock, Arkansas for an afternoon learning a bit about the Force and lightsabers.  Not to mention eating "Wookiee Cookies" and drinking "Yoda Soda." McMath staffers tell us that this is one of their most popular events.  Every year, they have calls asking when the Academy will be on.

photo courtesy of Z'Rissa

We filtered into the room a few at a time as the slideshow on lightsabers began.   As usual, my son "Revan" was along, the lone Jedi, and happened to be one of the first of the costumers to enter.  His Master Replicas weapon, loaned by Dad, got a lot of attention.  I joined him a few minutes later in my pilot gear.  I got right into things, answering the host's question, "What is a lightsaber?" with the classic "An elegant weapon, not clumsy or random like a blaster."  Across the room, TB9612 noted ruefully, "We don't like them at all." 

Next up was the Force trainer gadget, another traditional favorite.  No, I didn't try it.  The line was too long and I wanted to make sure all the kids got a chance.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it. 

At the same time, the kids got to their favorite part:  making their own lightsabers and playing Jedi & Sith with them.  Don't worry!  McMath 'sabers are made of foam, not power cells, emitters, Adegan crystals, etc.  Here's the construction, as taught by McMath's Jedi Archivists:  An adult Jedi Knight cuts a foam swimming pool noodle into several pieces.  The Padawan wraps a strip of duct tape around the end of 1 piece to from the hilt, and then sticks 2 round price dots (like people use on yard sale items) on the tape for the controls.  Then the Padawans have a ball with them.  I discussed with one of the Archivists how amazing it was that some kids could show up with 'sabers they'd made the year before when--if they were like my teens--they probably couldn't find yesterday's homework.

Revan, the Squad and I had a great time with the kids.  Several troopers allowed the kids to bop them over and over with the noodle-sabers, one even "cowering" in a corner.  All of us posed for pictures with the children and each other.  Revan was great about letting the youngsters hold his lightsaber in pictures. TK3630 (a joint RL member) coached Revan on placing his lightsaber blade between the trooper's armored arm and body for a realistic "Jedi stabs Stormtrooper" pose.  Just like his Dad (RL member Lon Mark) has done at some events. 

Before we left, several of us went through the library proper and Revan and I got some good shots of troopers, the Jedi and biker scouts looking at books and DVDs, which I will provide to McMath.  TB9612 posed with a books about space and the Moon while quipping about the latter... what else? 

"That's no moon--that's a space station!"

This event is was the first of 7 library visits we'll be doing in Central Arkansas this year.  Wow! Last year we only had two of these gigs.  I can't wait for July when we'll have 4 visits, all in conjunction with summer reading programs.

In fact, as a result of this mission, I had to edit the above paragraph -- because we added an event!  One of the families attending happened to be the "biggest Star Wars fans" at the Terry Library branch.  And the mother had already been asked to arrange Terry's Star Wars Extravaganza in early July.  So she was delighted to discover the Legions at McMath.  She found Kessel Base's Facebook page, with my posts about the upcoming library events and asked me to arrange an appearance at Terry.