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| photo courtesy of Snips92 |
This weekend, Great Lakes Base and Mando Mercs visited a pair of libraries; not 5 miles apart from each other. My day started at Hudson Library and Historical Society, which from the outside, you wouldn’t think this place is a library. However, once you step inside, this place is amazing!
For those of you planning future Star Wars library events, as someone who has been to more “Jedi Archives” then Obi-Wan Kenobi over the years, may I offer one piece of advise: TURN UP THE AIR CONDITIONING… if only for the first 10 mins or so! I’m not just saying this for my own personal comfort (this pilot was built for Hoth) but also for the benefit of both the costumers and the general public. One of the most common questions we get is, “those costumes must be warm?” -- and the answer is, “YES”… especially in closed room with 200-300 parents and kids. Thankfully, the staff at Hudson library were able to dial down the A/C and “carbonite freeze” us just a little bit more.
One of the things I love about trooping at different libraries is to sit back and observe the creativity the staff uses in coming up with games and activities for the kids. First, you can NEVER go wrong with “Wookiee Cookies” and “Yoda Soda” for guest and Star Wars characters to snack on. Second, there’s nothing better to keeps kids’ interest then traversing a Mustafar obstacle course – made from construction paper “lava” and rocks for the kids to jump through. Then came the activity that strikes fear into the hearts of Jedi and Sith costumers everywhere -- the dreaded “build your own lightsaber” craft activity! Imagine 20-30 kids, hopped up on Yoda Soda and Wookiee Cookies… with their own arsenal of balloon lightsabers (better then the cardboard tubing/duct tape) and you’re the only adult dressed as a jedi in the room? I’ll take my chances with “Order 66” thank you very much! Lastly, came my personal favorite: kids coloring to create their own custom X-Wings!
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| This one is going up on the fridge at home! |
Some of us (older) kids may have some new ideas for the next run of Shadow Squadron X-Wings! ;)
Honestly, the kids were GREAT… some of the nicest/well behaved I’ve ever encountered. Not only that, but they were so thrilled to see us -- our guys could do nothing but sign autographs and pose for pictures for like and hour and a half NON-STOP! One of the things I often do, while playing a Rebel Pilot, is draw a little sketch of a Y-Wing along with my call-sign “KRASH” … I have never drawn so many Y-Wings as I did today!
I like the story my sister (Snips92) told me on the way home: she was paired up next to Kathleen, the Padme (working on recruiting her) librarian from our Brunswick troop back on FREE Comic Book day. Kathleen noticed that Snips likes to put a little heart next to her name, when she plays one of Padme’s TPM handmaidens (Sabe) – so when Kathleen asked if she should do the same thing, Snips jokingly responded with “hey, that’s MY schtick… get your own!” I love how our guys find little ways to make whatever character they cosplay as unique for themselves.
As I mentioned before, while this was going on in Hudson… bounthunterq was leading another team of Mercs and GLB rebels at a nearby library event. Q promised me a recap of that library’s event in the next couple days, so stay tuned…
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