Photo Essay

I will admit it right now . . . I'm a geek. And not just any type of geek, I'm a Star Wars geek. Yep, I dress up as a character(s) from the movies and go out into public. However, I have a purpose behind my madness . . . I make children (and adults) smile. I'm part of an organization called The 501st Legion. The local chapter is called the Alpine Garrison. We use movie quality costumes to bring smiles and happiness to children--both big and small--through charity work.

For many of these kids we are a dream come true! When you were younger, didn't you think it would be cool if the characters from the movies would jump out of the screen and come to life in front of you? Well, that is what we are doing while enjoying the smiles we get from people.

Saturday we were able to participate in the Uptown Downs Buddy Walk in Murray. They organize this walk to promote awareness of Down Syndrome and for those in the Downs community to come together and enjoy themselves. They normally have various characters walking among everyone but we were specifically asked to come back this year because of the impact we made last year.

We're a crazy bunch, but anywhere we go, we seem to be able to draw quite a crowd. This was one of the entrances to the park where the walk was being held. The troopers decided to stick their heads in the little openings for a little girl who was laughing and smiling when they did that. The little girl was about 4 and had a mild case of Down Syndrome.

This boy is a teen who has a mild to moderate case of Down Syndrome and didn't leave us until one of his siblings or a parent would come and "escort" him to the other activities and characters there.
Three of the four kids in this picture have Down Syndrome ranging from mild/moderate to severe. The little girl was just so amazed by the character that she wouldn't take her eyes off him even with coaxing from her mother and others.

Again, the wonderment and amazement that we get from these kids is fun to see. They are a bit hesitant at first, but when they realize that we aren't there to hurt them, they get up close and don't want to go away.
This is Wampa. Normally we get two different reactions when he is around . . . people are either afraid of him and won't come near him or they are completely drawn to him. The Wampa from the movie is pretty fierce looking, so our actor-when he had this costume made-decided to put a friendlier face on the costume. I love this picture, but I wish I would have snapped it just a few moments sooner. This little girl has moderate Down Syndrome and was just standing there amazed by Wampa, staring up at him. Since you can't see much in that mask, one of the spotters tapped him on the arm and told him to look down. He leaned down and the little girl just had her mouth wide open and reached up to touch his face. The mother was smiling because normally she doesn't get near strange objects, the girl is a bit weary but wasn't afraid of Wampa.

This is the whole point of the photos. Normally the troopers don't participate in the walks because they don't have very much mobility in the costumes. This walk is short compared to the rest of them so some of the troopers decided to walk with the kids. This particular trooper wasn't going to walk the route but this little girl came up behind him, took his hand and wanted him to walk with her the entire way around. She wouldn't let him leave to go suit down at the end of the route until a member of her group came and picked her up. I later learned that Star Wars is one of the few movies that she will sit still and watch all the way through.



These kids are interesting to spend an afternoon with. They find wonderment in the little things that normally we just look at and dismiss or give little acknowledgment to. They always find us a wonder and amazing. The smiles that we see on the parents' faces are sometimes worth all the 'trouble' of putting on the costume and having limited vision and being hot a sweaty. For them, seeing their child smile and be happy running from character to character, wanting to touch them just to make sure that they are real . . . that is what makes it worth all the trouble: smiles.

We'll carry on into the future.