Jody, Roland, James, and myself all met at Dan Siemek's house to help load the books, toys and food into Dan's van and then headed to the Hospital. We had 1 pit stop at Phyllis' work near the hospital to pick up some more books she had picked up to donate. I'm sure we had some funny looks in traffic on the way the way there as I spoted Roland riding shotgun in Jody's car with his bucket on, LOL. After this we made our way to the hospital to set up and meet the others at the door so they could drop tubs and park their vehicals. We hit the hospital running as we met one little boy and his family as they were about to leave. He showed us his "zipper" as he called his scar from heart surgury down his chest. We rushed to give him and his siter some of our cards as they left. Dan made contact with the hospital staff who would be assissting us, and we began moving tubs and food up to the conferance room we would be utilizing to change and store our gear in. Dan stayed down with members of the staff to meet the rest of the troopers as they came in and show them the way to the room. we only had one snag as our Dark Lord went to the main hospital entrance and i had to go flag him down to our location, LOL. Once everyone arrived, we began suiting up and munching on the Jimmy John's graciously donated by Dan's sister's company. Jody and Dan spoke a little bit about the previous years troop, and Dan explained the meaning behind the Blue Bug hearts. Dan also had a tile painted by Steve Palenica for the hospital. The hospital has several of these tiles with artwork throughout the hospital on every floor. Steve created a beautiful tile featuring a clone holding a teddy bear with a little blue bug heart on its collar. This will be mounted on one of the walls in the hospital.
After everyone was geared up we went over the trooping plan. hospital staff had set up the books and toys on rollaway shelves and tried to organize them for easy passing out. We were split into 2 teams of 5 and tried to spilt our characters evenly. Vader, royal guard, TK, Utapau Clone, and X-wing pilot were group 1, and group 2 was Captain Rex, Princess Leia, RFT, Tusken, and TK. We were sent to different floors and began to meet the children.
We made our rounds from room to room, floor to floor meeting children and families. The Staff would go in ahead at most rooms and make sure it was ok, and what books they may be interested in. Once we were given the OK, we would enter the rooms, hand out the gifts and talk with the kids about anything and everything. Even the children who werent Star wars fans still enjoyed our company and were very gracious about the books and toys. We took several photos with the children, and even some with overly enthusiastic parents. Some children were not allowed our actual presence in their rooms due to their conditions, so several we were able to make smile by goofing around in front of windows and doorways. Steve Palencia was also there with us making sketch cards of the children's favorite characters. The staff did a great job of making sure we stayed on target and got to see all the children we were able to. This included making sure we kept rolling from room to room, this was very hard because we were naturally touched by all these children and wouldve stayed with several of them all day given the chance, making sure we had age and "likes" apropriate gifts, and on several occasions, chasing away Doctors who wanted pictures. They were reminded that we were there for the children, period. After making the rounds, some were escorted back to the conf. room we were using because it was only booked until 3pm. This was only the real mix up, as myself and Rich started suiting down thinking we had to be out of there in 10 min, only to find out later that no one else had reserved the room, so there was no reason to rush. The others were gathered at the Hope garden where there is a bench with a plaque dedicating it in memory of Dan's daughter Natalie. Due to our little time mix up, myself and Rich missed the group photo, as we were already suited down. After the group photos, everyone met at the conf. room and began talking to each other about all the wonderful experiances and stories of the days event as we dressed down and unwinded a bit. We all made our way back down stairs and began helping load gear into cars and saying our good byes. All the remaining toys and books not handed out this day were left with the hospital to pass out to future patients.
This troop was special to me because it literaly was the reason I became a member of the 501st and Rebel Legion. After talking to Dan after this event last year, I told him to get me the info, and I would be there next year. Also, I'm sure it special to everyone else like me just seeing these children and their famlies and loved ones battling it out with sickness and injury. The courage and determination you could see on some of the little faces literally left me speechless. Jody was not mistaken when he told me "after this troop, you will go home and hug everyone of your kids." It was such a honor to be able to be a part of this event, words cannot
possibly describe the emotions felt.
Jody kind of passed the torch to me when I came onboard since Im in contact with Dan all the time, this is still his troop, and I hope Ive done justice in this mission statement.
Attendees:
6443 Jody McQuarters TK
4438 Ed Krzyzowski DZ
1781 Rich Markle SL Vader
4838 Janine Jender ANH Leia
8310 Robert Hamilton CC Rex
3145 Joseph Stacko TR
4186 Roland Batrouni TK
8593 James Uphoff CT
3052 Steve Szyndrowski RFT
7345 Steve Mammen X-wing
Thanks to everyone who trooped and contributed to this event!
And let us us not forget the immortal words of TK-6443 spoken to The Dark Lord "yeah, you're real tough over there in your underwear boss"
I have posted all the photos dan took at the event to the MWG photobucket, please add more if you guys got any. http://s1099.beta.photobucket.com/user/ ... ugs%20Pals
Bugs Pals page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bugs-Pals/121940887854861
