Wonderfest 2013 (April 5, 2013)

[silverBoyd]

Despite the rain the day before and the weather being pretty cold (43 degrees for the first 2-3 hours) this was a great event. This was the 5th year (I believe) for the Wonderfest here in Charleston, SC and I believe that this was the biggest turn-out for them. Setting up our tent's display table turned out nicely. Especially since I got to finally show off my 501st Legion / Carolina Garrison banner that I finally had made. The table setup we had was pretty full in displaying brochures, upcoming Garrison events, info about R2KT, Detachment info as well as a nice collection of hand-made props (2 custom lightsaber hilts built myself and the rest of the props were made by Chris Gould...Vader chest armor & partial resin helmet, RotJ Thermal Detonator, resin Biker Scout blasters, Lobot headset, KS Biker Scout helmet as well as a Gonk Droid which doubles into an armor storage bin).
I'd like to give a special thanks to Greg French for getting my new banner made for me and for hand-delivering it to me at the event (even though he couldn't stay long or suit up with us). The event started @ 11 am and around 1230-100 the sun finally came up and the temperature climbed to a comfortable 63 degrees. Once the clouds parted and the blue sky came out, so did the crowd. What started out as a slow first few hours turned into an overwhelming (but very welcoming) crowd of attendees. We posed for lots pictures, both with attendees as well as plenty of local mascots, and we were treated to a nice array of snacks / food throughout the event as well. Bi-Lo was setup at the event as a "snack tent" handing out free hot dogs, apples, oranges, bananas and water. Chick-Fil-A came by our tent and personally delivered about 8-10 chicken sandwiches to us. Very tasty mid-troop snack. We were hoping to gather more donations than we did for a few local charities but only seemed to collect $13 ;-(
We had such an impressive presence with our armor / costumes that the coordinators have told us that they want to see us back again next year.

Troopers in attendance were:
Jason Boyd (TD-5945)
Gene Peacock (DZ-10073) (special thanks to Gene and his family for coming down to this event from NC. It was great to meet you and to finally troop with you)
Brad Lee (TI-8560)
Natasha Cox (guest // local Mandalorian Merc member)
Chris Gould (guest // upcoming CG - 501st member...currently working on his Biker Scout but appeared as Boba Fett with us sans backpack)
Taylor Seay (guest // upcoming CG - 501st member...currently has Biker Scout armor that needs some tweaking before submitting application)

Here are a few pictures from yesterday's troop....enjoy.

[ncpeacock]

Good fun man and we all had a blast. Sadie has quite the hoard of toys from the event. Folks, local companies and merchants came out and donated loads, and I mean loads of toys to every kid that came. We will be back next year if at all possible. And man,,,,I see my mid sash is unrolled in the last couple of pics,,makes me look fat,,,oh wait I am!