A Special Wish

Micah, an 8 year old who recently underwent heart transplant surgery, wanted more then anything to play the NEW “Star Wars: Battle Pod” game at Dave and Buster’s for his birthday.  Well, thanks to A Special Wish foundation he got a little more then that as members from Great Lakes Base, Ohio Garrison and Rancor Clan were also there to help celebrate his BIG day.

Missions like this are why many of us join these Star Wars costume groups!  Our guys arrived early on a Sunday morning at the Dave and Buster’s in Westlake, Ohio and quickly were hidden away in one of the private party rooms.  Just as Michah and his family arrived, we were standing there to greet them along midway leading into the D&B arcade.  Several of local news crews were also there as Micah came running up to us to give Darth Vader a big hug.  And since it would be rude to show up to a birthday party without a gift, we presented Micah with a gift bag filled with Star Wars toys, books and fun stuff.

You can watch WOIO 19 Action News footage of Micah's arrival at Dave and Buster's HERE

From there Micah lead us, especially Darth Vader – by the hand – straight to the “Star Wars: Battle Pod” game where he played the Battle of Yavin level.  From there he wanted to drive race cars with us, but he couldn’t reach the foot peddles (despite our best efforts) on the first game… so we packed up and moved to the next game where he could reach the gas pedal on his own.  We cheered on Micah as he played and even joined him on a couple video games and winning tickets to exchange for prizes in the D&B shop.

Eventually, it was time for us to head back to our “transport” for the long trip home, but not before this Rebel Pilot got a chance to try out “Star Wars: Battle Pod” for himself!  The game is AWESOME and you feel like you are living out the movies; especially when you are dressed for the part! ;)

I love the smell of pancakes in the morning...

...smell like VICTORY! (tastes like it as well)

After a bitterly COLD winter that would cause even Tauntauns to seek warmer climates, the Rotary Club of Canton, Ohio annual pancake breakfast and health and wellness screening event is a welcomed sign of spring.  Members from Great Lakes Base, Ohio Garrison, Rancor Clan and Dark Empire assembled at Canton McKinley High School on this cold and rainy morning.  Of course, nothing helps you feel better on a morning like this then the smell of fresh pancakes, maple syrup and glass of orange juice!

The public was treated to something of a “character breakfast” as our guys mingled around the cafeteria, stopping to pose for pictures and interact with guests as they enjoyed their meal.  “Slider” from the Cleveland Indians was also there, and you know we had to get a few pictures with him as well.

The McKinley Jazz Band performed during the breakfast, and these kids were pretty good!

Later on, we got the chance to suit out and enjoy some breakfast for ourselves.  The food was great and so was the hospitality of our hosts.

The slogan for the Rotary Club of Canton is: “Service Above Self” – which is a very good way to describe why we troop events like this.

Kourageous Keith

“The Rebel Pilot hides in the basement, alone, hoping to avoid detection at all cost…”

No, that’s not the opening line of the latest X-Wing series novel -- just me being the first to arrive at a surprise birthday party request that came in to Great Lakes Base, Ohio Garrison and Rancor Clan this past weekend. 

 The birthday party was for a brave kid known as “Kourageous Keith.” Keith just turned 8 years old and he is fighting a rare form of pediatric cancer called “undifferentiated soft tissue sarcom” -- for the second time.  His mother sent in a request for a few Star Wars characters to make an appearance at his birthday party, an invite our guys were glad to accept.  As you’d imagine, we tend to get a lot of birthday party event requests (for various reasons) -- yet we tend to only accept ones involving kids with serious medical issues.

Once the rest of the guys joined me in my underground hideout/basement, everyone got suited up as quietly as possible. After a while, Keith’s mom comes downstairs to check if we’re ready.  She goes back upstairs and announces that there’s some “special guests” who’d like to wish Keith a happy birthday; which is our cue to start heading upstairs.

In case you were wondering how many adult-sized Star Wars characters can fit in your standard-size living room = the answer is four; yet we somehow managed to fit six of us in the room!

After the rush of kids and parents taking cell phone pictures of Keith with all of the Star Wars characters, you can’t come to a kid’s birthday party without bringing some presents!  Bunch of the guys donated various Star Wars coloring books, toys and Hot Wheels cars for Keith’s birthday.  Keith tried on my Rebel Pilot helmet, which went along with his “Rebels Rule” t-shirt, and checked out one of the Mercs’ blaster rifle.  Then it was time for us to load up the spaceship and leave Keith and his family to enjoy the rest of his party.

You can find out more about “Kourageous Keith” by visiting his facebook community page:

https://www.facebook.com/KourageousKeith

GLB five-year Celebration

This year, Great Lakes Base has been celebrating it’s five-year anniversary with The Rebel Legion!  As one of the largest Bases within Rebel Legion, this milestone says a lot about not only the current members, but also the many people who’ve come and gone over that time.  One of the best ways to honor the legacy of Great Lakes Base is by coming together to celebrate the occasion with our fellow band of “Rebels.”  That is precisely what happened this past weekend in Maumee, Ohio.

Jed’s Fireball and Brew has become the (unofficial) center of Great Lakes Base.  The sports bar is located just outside of Toledo, with easy access from either the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Dayton or Detroit regions of either Michigan or Ohio.  As many of us travel these “hyperspace routes” to and from events on a regular basis, finding a centralized location to host a rally for a volunteer group is helpful. This year’s holiday party would be extra special because it also served that the five-year anniversary celebration.

BrianKenobi and Lumpy welcomed everybody to this special occasion with a brief “State of the Base” address; pointing out the fact that Great Lakes Base is the third largest Base in Rebel Legion, that we’re tied for the largest population of Wookiees within RL, and that for the third year in a row GLB has trooped +100 “missions” over the course of the year.  BrianKenobi also introduced Moff D, the original Commanding Officer for Great Lakes Base, who helped keep this group together during some rather difficult times and thank him for helping build the Base we have today.

Then came time for the announcement of this year’s “Skywalker Select Awards.”  The Skywalker Select Award is presented to a GLB member from each state “for outstanding commitment, devotion and contributions to the Great Lakes Base.”  This year’s recipients were Foogy One (Ohio) and kcjohnson (Michigan)

Once the “rebel briefing” was taken care of, it was time to celebrate and HAVE FUN! Sheikahchica hosted her annual “White (Bantha)” gift exchange, which is a huge hit with the crowd.  For reasons I can’t get into (for now), Lumpy and Bacca9 decided to suit up in their respective Wookiee costumes for a while – which made the evening feel a bit like the “Star Wars Holiday Special.”

Here’s to another five years (and more) of Great Lakes Base!  Because when it comes to this Star Wars family having a good time… “it’s what we do!”

Toledo Walleye

If there’s two things in life that I live for it’s Star Wars and ice hockey. Which means that when you bring those two things together, it becomes the “Reese’s Cup” of AWESOME!  And that is exactly what happened when Great Lakes Base and Ohio Garrison returned for “Star Wars Night” with the Toledo Walleye.

After the overwhelming success of last year’s Star Wars promotion, you would think this year has to be BIGGER then the year before – but if there’s anything I learned growing up playing hockey it’s that not every goal is scored on the power play!  We have done several sporting events with this organization, who also own the Toledo Mudhens baseball team (across the street) and one of the things we keep emphasizing to their promotions staff is that our guys work best when we are interacting with the fans.  So that is exactly the mission the Walleye staff gave us!

First off was a pregame character dinner where fans could enjoy some burgers and hot dogs, followed by some special one-on-one time with us.  Many of the kids were dressed up in their favorite Star Wars costumes and each family went around taking pictures with us.  It was fun to get to spend a little extra time with each kid, asking them who their favorite Star Wars character was -- particularly the one kid who pointed to me and said, “You!” (you can bet that kid got a high five for that answer)

Eventually, it was time for the game to start and we setup around the Walleye’s photo booth station.  The photo booth had a “green screen” backdrop (because what is Star Wars without a little green screen effects?) where fans could get their photo taken with any of us and have a special Star Wars background added in.  Each of us took turns in front of the camera, sometime fans would request for a specific character or two. The rest of us took pictures with fans passing by or as they waited in line for the photo booth.

Hockey is a game of speed and trying to troop one goes by even faster!  Plus it was a good night for the home team as the Toledo Walleye defeated the Orlando Solar Bear 4-3, extending their six game winning streak.  I’d like to personally thank the Toledo Walleye staff for not only inviting us… but also for taking care of my parents, who drove up to watch both the game and watch their kids play “Star Wars” -- two things which go great together!

Toledo Children's Hospital

One of the things you will hear many people say about groups like ours is that we get to “play Halloween, all year round.”  While that may be true in some respect, not every kid gets to go out and have fun Trick-Or-Treating with their friends… which made yesterday’s mission extra special when Great Lakes Base and Ohio Garrison were invited back to Promedica Toledo Children’s Hospital, to visit with the kids being treated there.

Hospital visits can be something of a balancing act for groups like ours; there can be a lot of protocol involved that could make C3P0’s circuits fizzle.  Each encounter with a patient is unique and both the hospital staff and Star Wars costumers want to help create as many smiles as possible, while at the same time respecting the patients and their parents needs.  For this visit, we ended up going from room to room visiting with kids individually -- because (thank the Force) the children’s wing of the hospital was fairly inactive this weekend.

In some cases, we were not allowed into the room for medical reason -- so we just stood in the doorway and took turns saying "hello!"  There was one girl in the children's ICU unit, whom I'll never forget because she had the most upbeat attitude.  Other times, both parents and nurses told us that they hadn’t seen their kid as excited as when we dropped in to visit them.  Amazing what holding a Jedi's lightsaber can do to improve a sick child's morale!

And as I explained to the kids, since we Star Wars characters are “kind of new to this planet…” and “didn’t totally understand how this Trick-Or-Treat thing worked?” we showed up came with a bag filled with various Star Wars toys, coloring books and games for them to pick something out. (Did I get that backwards?)  In fact, one kid was so excited to receive a gift from us that he rushed over to his Halloween bucket, pulled out some of his candy and put it into our bag as a gift for us… good trade!

Trooping at a hospital can be a balancing act, but they are also one of the most rewarding types of events costume groups get to do!  My first “official” event with Rebel Legion was at a local hospital visit and I’d like to see us do more of them with various local children’s hospitals.  

Boo at the Zoo Strikes Back!

Last week, I promised to report on anything NEW over at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo during our second weekend of “Boo at the Zoo” with Great Lakes Base, Ohio Garrison and Rancor Clan.  Looking back, I may have taken that oath a bit literally.

How about we start with what stayed the same?  “Boo at the Zoo” is the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo’s is a neighborhood of safe Halloween entertainment for kids, featuring lights, games and other fun activities as families tour the many animal exhibits during the evening hours.  This was the final weekend of “Boo at the Zoo” for 2014 and (just like last week) Saturday night was SOLD OUT!

One thing that was different was the weather -- which was BEAUTIFUL, unlike last weekend.  This meant that more people were coming dressed in their favorite Halloween costumes, minus the winter coats; a tradition for anyone who grew up in NE Ohio. 

Another thing different was that with the exception of Snips and myself, we had an entirely different crew from last weekend; all of them “Boo at the Zoo” rookies.  We started off in our usual spot by the main entrance and people would ask if they could get pictures with us -- as we at GLB like to say, “it’s what we do!”  However, once the zoo was opened up to the public to explore Snips had the idea of mixing things up a bit from our standard routine.  Traditionally, we wait for the crowds to disperse before we go exploring the zoo for ourselves. However, since the weather was so nice and sunset wasn’t for another hour or so, we decided to start our patrol of the zoo while it was still daylight.  In fact, we got all the way up the hill by the Wolf Lodge, tigers and bears (oh my!) exhibits before it got really dark and more people stopped us for photos along the way then we typically get waiting by the main entrance. 

After meeting up with a pair of late arrivals from Rancor Clan, our group made it’s way towards the opposite end of the zoo.  We stopped for a while at the newly restored “Circle of Wildlife Carousel” -- featuring sixty-four, individually carved animal figures, all hand created by an Ohio-based company.  This thing is BEAUTIFUL to look at and was originally part of the old Euclid Beach Park from 1910-1969.  Restoring this carousel has been a labor of love for the Cleveland Metroparks and now a new generation of kids will get to build a lifetime of memories riding this famed attraction.

From there our group took a “walkabout” through the Australian-themed exhibit and Reinberger Homestead, past the “Elephant Crossing” (who smell a lot like Banthas) until we were back at the main entrance and most of our guys were ready to gear down for the evening.

GLB "Mission Photos" -- Cleveland Metroparks "Boo at the Zoo"

It had been a different type of evening for us at “Boo at the Zoo” – but as always, it also was a lot of fun!