Greetings and Welcome to Garrison Carida, Local Unit of the 501St Legion, Proudly Serving the Communities of Pennsylvania and Delaware

Greetings and Welcome to Garrison Carida, local unit of the 501st Legion, proudly serving the communities of Pennsylvania and Delaware. Garrison Carida was formed in February 2002 and currently has over 180 members who strive to provide service to our communities through sharing our love of Star Wars with all. The 501st Legion is a world wide, professional costuming organization dedicated to the Dark Side Characters of the Star Wars universe. Our 7,000 world wide members passionately recreate movie accurate costumes of the many iconic characters from both, the Original and Prequel trilogy, as well as the ever growing “Expanded Universe” consisting of video games, books and even the animated Clone Wars series. Darth Vader, Darth Maul, Bounty Hunters like Boba Fett, as well as the various units of the Clone and Imperial Armies seemingly step off the screen and into our communities. Our member’s commitment to costume accuracy, and professional, charitable service has gained the 501st Legion the distinction of being Lucasfilm’s Preferred Costuming Organization. The 501st Legion has even been granted the

The 501st Legion is a worldwide Star Wars costuming organization comprised of and operated by Star Wars fans. While it is not sponsored by Lucasfilm Ltd., it is Lucasfilm’s preferred Imperial costuming group. Star Wars, its characters, costumes, and all associated items are the intellectual property of Lucasfilm. ©2016 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All rights reserved. Used under authorization. 2016 Garrison Carida® honor of being included in the official cannon of the Star Wars Saga as Darth Vader’s Personal Legion of Stormtroopers, aptly named Vader’s Fist. The 501st Legion has a passion for Community Service and charitable endeavors, and Garrison Carida’s motto of “First to Advance Last to Retreat” embodies our members commitment to that ideal. Garrison Carida has built long standing committed relationships with various well known charitable organizations like Make a Wish, Children’s Miracle Network, Special Olympics, Autism Speaks, and many others. In addition to assisting these organizations with numerous events each year our members also visit almost a dozen Children’s hospitals twice annually. During these events our members visit with the patients and their families, even participating in activities with the patients as their condition allows. This is one of the most rewarding activities that our members participate in each year as we provide an opportunity for the patients and their families to forget about their circumstances, if even for a very short time. In order to support our endeavors with our local Children’s hospitals, Garrison Carida, conducts toy drives throughout the year to collect unopened Star Wars Toys that are distributed to each patient at the Children’s hospitals that we visit. Many of our members even donate some of their own collection to ensure that no child is left out of the joy brought by the magic of Star Wars.

In 2012 Garrison Carida began conducting “Blast a Trooper” events in which our members used their costumes to help organizations raise money by volunteering to be targets in a Nerf Shooting gallery. To date Garrison Carida is responsible for raising several thousand dollars through this fund raising endeavor for, Toys for Tots, Children’s Miracle Network and Alex’s Lemonade Stand.

As we enter a new chapter in the Star Wars saga, Garrison Carida continues to search for new ways to serve our communities, and share the Love of Star Wars with the awakening of an entire new generation of Fans. Please feel free to visit our website www.501stgarrisoncarida.org and read over the testimonials written in response to our past missions. We also welcome you to visit our Flickr page www.flickr.com/photos/garrisoncarida/sets/ where we post pictures from our past appearances. If you would like to learn more about how Garrison Carida can support your organization or event we encourage you to contact one of the members of our command staff.

Contact Information

Commanding Officer Executive Officer

Rob Thomas Dan Beltz

Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected]

Phone: (717)554-1756 Phone: (412)609-6717

Events Coordinator Charity Officer

Rebecca Romanoff Matthew Stahlman

Jessica Linn Email: [email protected]

Email:[email protected]

Membership Officer Public Relations Officer

Walter Peters Michael Hinton

Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected]