Kathy set the day up in grand fashion by bringing over her fantastic collection of SW dolls and displaying them proudly in the cases around the children's area. Saw sevearl Skokie peeps posting pics of them in the days leading up to the event. They really are 100% unique and the kids loved seeing them there. Her life sized Yoda was also a fantastic touch and was featured in many photos throughout the day!
The MWG was represented by a great variety of troopers, including Kathy in snowie, River in Scout, DarthChronus in Officer, Atrek in Bridge Crew and myself as the TIE. Since I had Aiden there as well (in clone), I came out of the staging area a little early and the kids (and adults) flipped out. The classic moment where it seems a character stepped right out of the screen. But as excited as they were, when the rest of the crew marched into the children's area, it turned into a mob scene, with all the paparazzi you'd expect.
After staying together as a group for a little while and taking group shots with the kids, we circulated around, interacting with the kids there. Got some fun shots goofing around behind the circulation desks, and were led to the 'back room' at one point to take some pics with the library staff.
When Jeffrey Brown took thes tage, we accompanied him and served as 'security' for him. He worked us into his demonstration a bit, as he drew the audience's favorite characters. One request was for him to draw a TK. Using Beans as a live model, he was happy to comply! Once the signing began, we stepped away, made another round or two around the room and then geared down.
Jeffrey hung around until every person got their books signed and chatted with us a bit after. He's a fantastic guy and I'm always glad when we can support him. He also donated the large sketches he did on stage for us to use in our fundraising efforts.
On a personal note, a lot of the people attending were friends, family and colleagues of mine from the Skokie area. And I can't tell you just how much they enjoyed it. I"ve gotten a slew of messages from people saying that it was the highlight of their kids' weekend. Very grateful to everyone that came out and made the event such a success!
ToD - 2 Hours:
TKvanB - 9989
Atrek - 82659
DarthCronus - 10015
Beans - 4541
River - 3166
Teach42 - 9526
Charitable donation: None has been made yet, but our contact there made it clear that she was going to. As soon as I have an amount, I will update this post.
