In 2000 and 2001, Tom and I trooped at the SC State Fair and handed out treats to kindergartners. Nothing is more frightening than swarms of kids running at you and screaming... no wonder those teddy bears gave us such a hard time on Endor.

Tom, Laura and I went to my daughter's kindergartner's class for story time. Allie didn't even know it was me!

Dragoncon 2001 - the club began to take shape. This was the first year at Dragoncon where the 501st REALLY started taking off. Every costume imaginable was showing up, people from all over the world made it, and even Planet Hollywood in downtown Atlanta shut down to host us in our first ever 501st mixer complete with a showing of A New Hope on every screen as we dined with Jeremy Bulloch, Dave Prowse, Peter Mayhew and their guests.

2001 marked the first time we held a Commanders Meeting, which came to be a long-running tradition at Dragoncon. Every year the CO's or someone appointed to represent their group gather together and hash out the latest goals and issues for the Legion. Take a look at the group photo of the first-ever Commanders Meeting.

Forming up for the first really BIG group photo. Nice shots of the similar costumes grouped together, giving us a good idea how prolific the different categories had become. This was at the Sun Trust building, a standard place for a group photo while at Dragoncon. Notice some of the shots were taken from the ledge to the left, offering a nice view of the groups. Also notice the infamous NEG flag which Lucasfilm later asked us not to use in public as it technically was a defaced American flag and somewhat contraversial (but fun nonetheless).

Marching to Planet Hollywood to take it over!

In 2002 the Carolina Garrison attended Stellarcon in High Point, NC where three famous Star Wars authors were in guests: Timothy Zahn, Michael Stackpole, and Aaron Allston. It was a chance for me to launch a project I'd developed for inducting Honorary Members into the club, something I felt would bring us closer to various Star Wars celebrities and help us show them how much we appreciate their efforts. That weekend we inducted all three authors as the Legion's first three Honorary Members. All three were very appreciative and made us feel like friends. On a side note, Mr. Zahn came by our fan table late Saturday night as he was wandering the con. Little did he know that the Carolina Garrison had been drinking heavily and enjoying ourselves. So when he came up to the table to learn more about the club, I was put in a rather awkward position: how to explain the club to Mr. Zahn while bombed out of my mind? Mind you, I struggled through best as I could, but I'm sure I looked ridiculous. Regardless, the pitch must have been worth something, because just two years later....

In 2002 members of Titan Garrison were invited to pose in costume for an advertisement Wizards of the Coast ran for their upcoming Star Wars role playing game.

Celebration II
In 2002 the Celebration convention was moved to Indianapolis, Indiana and to a MUCH more accommodating convention center across from the RCA dome. It was here that the 501st cemented its reputation as an elite professional costuming organization as it volunteered to staff the security at the convention. Wizards of the Coast, running the convention, had no idea how big the crowds would turn out to be. So it was a great relief to see armored stormtroopers at the critical check-points, keeping the crowds controlled and the mood light. CII was also the first large-scale involvement of the celebrities. Over thirty Honorary Memberships were presented on Saturday alone, inviting the stars of Star Wars to become partners with the 501st.