New Farm State School Fete

[Teiwaz]

Date: 26 July 2015

Venue: New Farm State School

Time: 10am

Mission: To raise funds for New Farm P&C

Trooper Attendance:
TB12311 Teiwaz - Biker Scout
TK24984 Diatium - Stormtrooper ANH Stunt

Support Crew:
Dark Dora (Cadet, Wrangler, Child Whisperer, Magic Stamp Holder)
MyKill (Cadet, Wrangler, Walking Armoury, Star Wars Trivia Specialist)

Details:
With the garrison recovering from two heavy deployments the previous day, attendance was down but the spirits were high and soon bolstered by some Imperial Grade Merlo coffee.

We did learn some things about donations. If you say something is a gold coin, they put in a gold coin. They might even say "I haven't got change." If you just say "we're raising money for xyz" they rarely put in less than a dollar but they will often give you a pile of change and sometimes put in notes. The bucket the school gave us said "donations appreciated" and it turned out to work really well. For two troopers at a small school we were pretty happy with the response, and more importantly so was the school.

Dark Dora never asks for money. She says "would you like me to take a photo for you?" and she does it with the bucket chest high so the public can read the label. The money usually flows by itself. I think Dark Dora's magic smiley face stamps figure into the equation there too. I did note the exact same stamps on the teacher's desk in the classroom. Probably some ISB interrogation technique beyond this trooper's pay grade.

We had the luxury of having a wrangler who could lug around the T-21. At a small troop it helps to have a prop to add to the production value, and the T-21 is a huge hit with the Dads. Being able to bring the T-21 into and out of photos as well as watching for rogue kids and balaclava adjustments, MyKill was great backup to Dark Dora's money making and kid wrangling efforts.

This is our 5th troop in 3 weeks with Diatium. It just turned out that way, there was a cluster of troops in July we could do at the same time. Absolute pleasure to troop with this bloke. First to arrive, last to leave, works hard all day, always has your back. Great job mate, see you on Friday for the next one.

Last word I'll give to our contact from the P&C:

"Aside from the money its the atmosphere you generate that has made us such fans of the 501st Legion. Its extremely generous of you and your crew to do this not only at our fete, but on so many weekends for so many organisations" - Paul Jones, New Farm P&C.

Charity Funds Raised: $176 for the New Farm P&C. Receipt with the GCO.

Injuries / Malfunctions: None.

Public Incidents: None. We did see in the late afternoon up in the rides area there were tired kids with too much sugar, but we just redeployed to a quieter location.

Mission Status: Success.

Photos:

This is the coffee we're looking for.


This time the troop transport was below Imperial standards. Colour more suited to a yellow RC, but I'd like to see him bend down to get on it!


School Principal Carmel McGrath


Dark Dora's white minions.


MyKill discussing weapon specifications.


School supplied bucket.


5 very different characters in white uniforms.


No free lunches Diatium.


We can't shoot these straight either.

[Diatium]

It's was an amazing fun small troop.I can't wait to have more like it,they are so intimate and fun.
Ps four hits out of 6 bullets in the last pic. I think I did pretty good for a TK haha

[Bally]

Awesome read and great job guys. Fantastic tips for the donation raising too.

[DarkFather]

Congrats guys. So many troops, so little time (and travel money). I'm jealous that you guys get to go to all these. You all seem to have so much fun. Again congrats, a job well done.

[DannytheBlue]

ditto dark father !!! wish we got more too but its great reading these reports well done guys

[Dreadnought]

Teiwaz, that was such a well written troop report. Sounds like it was a great day. And following on from Indigo the day before, you and Dark Dora are killin' it! The tips about donations are also fantastic for us newbie wranglers. Dark Dora not only wrangles the troops well, she wrangles the crowds well too. She was definitely a factor in my wife signing up. Terrific troop, terrific report and photos, well done guys.

[Altair]

Great work team, sorry I couldn't get along to this one.

[MyKill]

Ps four hits out of 6 bullets in the last pic. I think I did pretty good for a TK haha

Yeah, but now tell them your score when you actually aimed! [chortle, chortle]

My highlight (apart from the TWO high fives I got), was this conversation,

Boy: "which guy are you?"

Me: "I'm the guy who looks after him!" (Points to diatium)

Boy: [while walking away] "...borrrring!"

Diatium: [muffled laughter]

Me: "oh you heard that did you?"

Apparently gloves make a costume! (I was breaking them in/just wanted an excuse, also kept "weathering" on the T21 to minimum) I actually got asked if I was in TFA!?! (You see my outfit right? Darth Hypzter perhaps?)

[Phantom]

Great stuff guys.

I spoke to the lady who made the request via email, I use to work with her, she was running one of the food stalls so she didn't get a real good chance to check it out but she said:

"it looked like they were bringing lots of smiles to kid’s faces. My son Aaron is currently on crutches after fracturing a bone in his ankle playing soccer, and he was telling me last night that he and a Storm Trooper were at the game’s stall firing range game, Aaron was using his crutch as a makeshift gun and the Storm Trooper was using a big bazooka type gun to pretend to fire shots. So I think it all went well thank you.
At this stage I have no idea what funds were made yesterday, all I know is that I’m glad to be back at work for a rest!!!!!"

Again great work troopers and wranglers.

[Dark Dora]

Another fantastic day we had bringing smiles and raising money at the same time. I so love being part of this wonderful organisation.

[Teiwaz]

I just found a photo from another website about this. We were asked to have a photo with a choir, and we thought it must have been a kid's choir. It turned out to be an adult choir from a group called Access Arts. They are a group that promote arts and cultural participation for Queenslanders with a disability.

An unexpected little detour but they were very excited to see us.

[Sly]

Excellent job guys and gal. Would like to have been there, but had a family day, so hopefully next year.