Starlight Week @ Albert Street Brisbane

[Donut]

Date – Saturday August 20th

Venue – EB Games/Zing, Albert Street, Brisbane City

Time – 10am - 1pm

Mission – To help raise funds on the last weekend of Starlight Week

Trooper Attendance:

Donut - TK
BigDub - ANH TI
Phoenix - TK Commander

Support Crew/Wranglers:

RoboTom

Details:

I arrived at the store at around 9:30 and was soon joined by Phoenix. We decided to start suiting up and were lead to the back room by the very excited assistant store manager.

Now, I've done several Starlight Weeks at the Albert Street store, but not for many years. But I was in awe of the size of their back room.
Previously it was the size of a long closet... but to our surprise it was gigantic. Enough space for a whole legion of troops to get changed.

Before we were fully armoured up, we were joined by RoboTom.

Once in costume, we headed outside armed with a donation bucket. About 5 minutes after we made it outside, we were joined by BigDub, who made the super long journey all the way from Harvey Bay for this troop!

Once suited up, all three of us trooped the front of the store in Albert Street, and it was non stop. Constant donations and photos. It barely eased up all day.

There were a couple of moments where we had time to have a little side fun, with Phoenix and BigDub pursuing a bin chicken, and some fun photos in the store.

Phoenix left at midday, and BigDub, RoboTom and I stayed on for another 45 minutes to fully fill up the donation bucket.

Charity Funds Raised – None - but we filled a donation bucket up to the brim. We got a lot of notes too, which was amazing.

Injuries/Malfunctions:
I forgot to wear my hand plates for the first 10 minutes, but that was quickly rectified.

Public Incidents:
Let me open by saying that I am super thankful to RoboTom for wrangling this one.
I have previously been punched whilst wearing Master Chief and fund-raising for Starlight Week at the Albert Street store, so I know that the foot traffic can sometimes be problematic.

Early on, one guy came up to us and just stared at us for a moment, before seeming to amp up and proclaim
"I want to do something to you guys, but I don't know what!"
He thankfully moved along straight after.

Later in the day there were two groups of teenagers - a group of girls and a group of boys. The boys were harassing the girls up the street towards the Queen Street Mall.
The girls left, but the boys came down and were standing around off to the side of us.
It was clear they were wanting to do something, but we weren't sure what. Either to us, or to try and steal something from the shop.

At one point one of them hid a cup of soft drink in the garden, and as Phoenix was standing alone, one of the boys started to move towards the cup and Phoenix.

Tom moved Phoenix back to the group and we all just watched them, waiting to see if anything happened.

After a while, they came closer, so Tom flat out asked them if they would like a photo in an attempt to move them along, and make them aware, that we were aware they were there.

They did get a photo, but then continued to linger for a while after.

One from the group entered the store and we tried to keep watch of him. We never saw him come out, but it was really chaotic with so many people around, so we think he came out and we didn't see.

After that, they finally moved along and the rest of the day was problem free.

Mission Status:

A resounding success. As troublesome as being in that location can be, the sheer volume of foot traffic, photos and donations is just off the charts.

Thank you so much to everyone who came, but a special big thanks to BigDub for coming all the way. And a huge thank you to RoboTom for keeping us safe.

Photos: 

[Meowied_Cass]

Awesome work! Always sad to hear about public incidents.

[Sly]

Awesome guys.

[Wendell]

Great photos guys. Well done on the long troop. Great effort by you again Big Dub driving all the way from Hervey Bay.

[Rebelrach]

Well done troopers and always good to have such an attentive wrangler as Tom! Funds raised surely weren’t “none” though?