Travis and Michelle Fitzgerald's blog

Just wanted to give an update on the Relay for Life event we did this weekend. There was a total of $560 donated on my behalf for the Relay for Life. The 501st Legion raised a total of ~$4,000 in donations before and during the event.

Michelle and I got to the event at about 6:00 pm Friday evening. In retrospect, we should have gotten there a little earlier to have time to put our stuff in the tent and to get in costume. The “Survivors Walk” start shortly after 6:00 but Michelle and I weren’t really able to cheer on the cancer survivors since we were just getting set up.

At this event we had 4 Stormtroopers, 2 Sandtroopers, Darth Vader, Boba Fett, an ARC trooper, an Imperial Officer, Episode 3 Padme, Episode 2 Padme, 3 Jawas, and a handmaiden.

Once we got going, I had a lot of fun. We “arrested” numerous offenders, mostly paid for by their parents or friends ($0.50 per minute in jail), and we brought in some extra cash when some “bribed” us to get out of jail early. We also got lots of pictures taken of us (didn’t charge for that), and we offered a high quality greenscreen picture (printed out) for a small donation of $5. We also had a “life size” action figure card that people could use to take pictures of themselves as an action figure (there’s a picture of me in one of the links below). We also had a bunch of stuff that we raffled off: a Master Replicas Force FX lightsaber (Vader, of course), 501st stormtrooper action figure, R2-KT action figure, a bunch of Boot Town gift cards (one of the guys works there), a couple R2-D2 and R2-KT stocking caps (very cute on little kids, by the way), and a Lando Calrissian Gentle Giants bust. It was an awesome selection of stuff!

Michelle and I packed up and left at 1:45 am, while some of the others in our group stuck around until 4:00 am. In total I spent about 4 hours in costume, and wow were my feet hurting by the end of the night (I can’t sit down in the costume).

Here is a link to the pictures that Michelle and I took:
http://www.austinaero.com/pictures/categories.php?cat_id=28

Here is a link to the pictures taken by our squad leader, Sam (generally better quality pictures than mine):
http://picasaweb.google.com/sgmorton/RelayForLife4112008/photo#s5188442348407346834

We are already looking forward to doing this again next year. Michelle may even have a costume next time. Thank you all again, very much!!

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the event:

Me as an action figure!

Cute kid.

Stephen demonstrating how we all felt at the end of the night.

-Travis (TK-1253) and Michelle