Tiffany Erwin is a 13 year old Seffner Florida resident that has recently been diagnosed with brain stem Glioma, an inoperable and terminal brain cancer. On Sunday March 1st a group of 501st members participated in an event in efforts to raise money for the family. The family was thrilled to have us there and our group got to meet Tiffany in person. We also met the parents of Tiffany and found ourselves holding back our emotions as we learned that this is the second child that the family is dealing with losing.
This fundraiser personally left me with a bitter taste in my mouth as this event fell on the same day as another event, which raises no money whatsoever, but allows members to get together and get shit face drunk and square off against ego's. The other event drew a total of 73 501st from around the state of Florida. This fundraiser brought 7. The 7 of us who did show earned our title while the other 73 members from around the state spent their weekend doing absolutely nothing but drinking, choosing cliques, and laying out the direction of the Florida Garrison for the upcoming year. As the 501st Legion is a member group made of all volunteers it cannot be mandated to attend important events over "look at how awesome we are" events. My vitriolic view was only further highlighted after finding out that no leaders were willing to make a statement - leading by example. But I digress...
After the event I put up 78 Star Wars action figures (out of my personal collection) on the 501st Legion Florida & main Legion boards in an effort to raise as much money as possible. The auction ran for three weeks and had not a single bidder or participant. During the three weeks that the auction was up and open for bidding there was a total of $2,718 spent by Florida members on new costumes, upgrades to their current costumes, shirts, stickers, etc. Again...I digress...
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