MI - West Michigan Whitecaps Event - Saturday, July 14th (Planning)

WHAT: West Michigan Whitecaps Baseball
WHEN: Saturday, July 14th 2007
WHERE: 5/3RD BALLPARK NEAR GRAND RAPIDS
ATTENDING: SELLOUT CROWD OF 11,000!!
CHARITY: Make-A-Wish


Link to Whitecaps Site
www.whitecaps-baseball.com
Directions to Ballpark
www.whitecaps-baseball.com/BALLPARK/directions.html

The West Michigan Whitecaps are welcoming back the 501st Legion for the second consecutive summer. Last year this event raised $1,100 for the "Make-A-Wish" charity. This year we're in position to do much better than that. Troopers from all Midwest Legions (Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin & Michigan) are welcome to come in for this event. Hotel accomodations will be arranged for those making a long drive from out of state. What will make this event unique is that the West Michigan Whitecaps players (Class A Affiliate of the Detroit Tigers) will each wear a Star Wars baseball jersey, during the game, designed by 501st member, Scott Withers and approved by LucasFilm!
[image=http://www.berlinraceway.com/LORI/wcjersey.jpg]

Several of these game-worn jerseys will be auctioned off and raffled, with all the proceeds going to "Make-A-Wish". Lucas has requested 3 of the jerseys for his archives and several of the extra jerseys have been made available for purchase by 501st members. This event has the potential of bringing in a lot of money for the charity. Troopers will be involved once again in on-field games/antics in between innings and the plan is to show one of the Star Wars movies on the big video board in left field again {Probably Empire Strikes Back}. More information will be posted here as updates come available. In the meantime, please consider taking part in what will no doubt be a very memorable evening for the 501st Midwest Garrison.

Two months to go until this event.

I was thinking about this event last week. I can't believe my friend HAS to get married on that day in IN!!

You guys have fun....

Never to late to interven

Yup, what jabba said.

LOL, great Idea.... I'll use the force...

*waves hand*
You don't want to get married that day!!!

See you really are more of a dark jedi!!

Well, this said dark jedi was going to post something yesterday about marriage yesterday but thought twice about it.

You can bet I'll be there! Even if it's with bells literally on! Heh!

Here's an update from the meeting on Saturday.

We had a good meeting at Donovan's today. Here's the update.

1. John Blizzard will be making up "invites" that will be mailed out to everybody in the Michigan Squad as well as squads in Ohio, Indiana & Illinois. It will serve as a "reminder" or "save-the-date" so people who don't peruse these boards much can still commit and attend. Hopefully those cards will be mailed out within the next two weeks.

2. Blizz is also looking into possibly having a special patch made to commemorate this event. Each person who troops and costume supports will get a patch. This may or may not happen in the remaining timeframe we have left so keep checking for updates.

3. There's a chance a Whitecaps team photo will be taken either before or after batting practice on 7/14. The Whitecaps players will be wearing their Star Wars jerseys. I'm waiting for a reply from the Whitecaps on whether they might want some costumers available for this picture as well. If costumers are desired for the photo, I will post that and if people want to volunteer to be in costume and be in the picture, you'll need to be at the ballpark at 1:30pm as opposed to 3:00pm. Again, this may or may not happen but please consider it if it does happen.

4. I will be contacting "Mill Creek Bar & Tavern" which is about a half mile from the ballpark. That's where the after-party will be. Hopefully they'll allow for 40/50 people to pop in after the movie starts at the ballpark. I'll have updates about this as well.

5. Donovan and I will need costumers to continue to let us know what costumes you plan to wear for the event. That way we can keep a running tally of how many TK's, TD's, etc... we'll have. If you've committed to the event, please let us know what costume you plan to wear.

6. Please continue to spread the word about this event. If all goes according to script, we could raise $5,000 for Make-A-Wish!!! We'd love to have as many costumers commit to this event as possible.

Donavon, Blizz, Carl Nelson and I are opening our homes. If you need a place to crash on 7/14, please PM one of us so you have a place to stay after the ballgame ends.

Donavon and I will put together another PDF (much like the one that was posted within the Griffins thread) which will detail everything connected with this event. That PDF will probably post sometime in early July. Meantime, any changes and/or updates will be posted here.

For those who ordered the baseball jerseys, they will be finished in about a month or perhaps toward the end of June. More to come when it's available. Thanks to everybody who plans to take part in this event.

That looks great, and I know you guys will have fun!!

I almost cried reading this because I want to go SO BAD!!!
I'm still growing out my hair and beard incase my friends decide to at the last minute not to get married. lol, that's so bad of me.

Just call him and tell him you are sick. He won't know the difference. Oh there I go going to the dark side again.

By the way Count I keep hearing that Master Replica will be making that Count Dooku FX lightsaber you have been waiting for to make the costume complete. Plus MR didn't renew their contract with Lucasfilms so they are going to get everything out by the end of the year. Your wait is almost over.

Whoops now back to what this thread is about.

Where did you here that MR didn't renew?
Just got my DV helmet from MR so I am complete if you need a DV, (also have the Clone Trooper one too, very cool.)

Here's the story.

http://www.rebelscum.com/story/front/Corgi_and_Master_Replicas_To_Cease_Producing_Star_Wars_Products_105864.asp

Stiger... PM sent...

Thanks for that MR news post, I better start buying up more FX sabers, what a disappointment.

this was announced right before Celebration - actually MR pulled out of the entire convention. However they did have the MR party since David Prowse, Matt Wood, etc were all confirmed to attend. But the large spot that was reserved for them in the Exhibition Hall was quickly taken over by another vender (or two - it was quite large) -

So ironic because there were a lot of lightsabers at the convention - a ton on the dance floor.

and now....where we go to get our fix? or ....to get ours fixed if it breaks?

Seems like there had to be a better solution here.

Whoops bad me. I forgot to post the latest update from the MWG.

Saturday, July 7th will be the day the Whitecaps would like a handful of costumers to come out and promote the 7/14 event. This will be another sellout crowd and the best platform for us to promote the event. If you're interested in trooping the Whitecaps game that night, please PM Donavon Larabel as he'll be coordinating that.

Still no word yet on the team picture with the Whitecaps in their SW jerseys. Mickey from the Whitecaps will get an answer on it as soon as the Midwest League All-Star break is over and the team returns for its next homestand.

The Whitecaps are looking into getting us a 20x30 tent for all of us to change in on July 14th!! This tent will be out front of the stadium. This would be better than changing in the team's front office like we had to last year. The only catch is I feel we need to have the tent guarded all night so people don't go inside and have their way with our personal belongings. Does that mean we rotate "Costume Support" staffers down to guard the tent? I'm open to any and all suggestions on this. The Whitecaps tell me they cannot put one of their people down there to guard the tent because on gamedays all their people are extremely busy.. Susie Leopold is coordinating costume support for this event we will open sone dialogue with her for some suggestions.

If you need a place to crash on the night of July 14th, please PM either Blizz, Donavon, Carl Nelson or myself. Blizz tells me that he has plenty of room for people to sleep at his house. I'm starting to fill up, but I can always squeeze a few more in as well. Please, please don't let having nowhere to sleep cause you to not come to this event! Save the $120 a night you'd pay for a hotel and stay with one of your 501st bretheren. It's free and it makes sense.

That's all for now. More to come later.

Just found out from a posting at the MWG that we will have a clone trooper(in full armor)playing the National Anthem.

I am LOVING the news about the Anthem-playing Clone Trooper! I may even ask to be briefly excused from my costume support duties to see it for myself!

But as a member of Cos. Sup., if you need it, I'll place my name in the hat for a tent guard.

a "handful" of costumers? Should I even be contacting people?

WOWOWOW... There is still a chance I can be part of the WC event!!!! I'm glad I've been growing out my hair again.

I'm not sure who or what costumers you were looking for, but I would LOVE to be part of the "HandFul" if that's OK? I know I don't have anything going on yet either!!


Anyone in this "HandFul" yet?

And those patches that were discussed at the meeting are a go. 50 go to those who participate and the other 50 are going to be for sale.

How will you be selling the patches?

They will be offered to the first 50 people getting the pictures at the photo booth. If any are left over at the end of the night we will offer the remaining to any costumers/support who would like to buy extras. They will cost $5. Any money raised above our cost to buy them will go towards the charity.

Look!!! Our own sportsanchor is sporting the Whitecap's jersey.

[image=http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f59/stiger1/SWJERSEY1.jpg]

[image=http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f59/stiger1/SWJERSEY2.jpg]