Jedi Training Day

Back in April I had my first real "big event." Basically it was a family/all ages program... with no registration. Which means I had to plan for an event with no idea what kind of numbers to prepare for. I have since been given advice for how to manage that kind of scenario, but at the time I had to make it up on the fly! Plus, I had some great people behind me to pull it off.

With May the 4th quickly approaching, I wanted to have a Star Wars themed program; so we came up with Jedi Training Day:

Flier and bookmark for the event.

The program was made up of six stations. When a family or individual signed in the were given a training card (like a checklist). When they completed a station they got it marked off their training card. Once everything was checked off they got a completion certificate and could enter their training card into the prize raffle.

The stations were:

Looks like someone's making their own R5-D4!

Build a Droid

Participants made their own droids using paper cups with droid leg templates attached by brads (this let the legs move more realistically). Details were added with colored paper, glue, and markers. The end results were pretty awesome!

Sometimes the simplest design is the most effective.

Design a Starfighter

This station had lots of instructions and supplies for a variety or origami Star Wars ships, as well as some basic paper airplane instructions. Participants were able to get creative with their designs and decorate their starfighters with crayons and colored pencils.

Flying their starfighters.

Test Flight

We taped out 15 lines one foot apart and had participants throw their starfighters from behind the start line. Then they measured out how far their starfighter went. They had lots of opportunities to tweak (or recreate) their design and try again until they were happy with the results.

Lightsaber construction is serious business.

Build Your Own Lightsaber

These are surprisingly simple to make. Take 1/2 a sheet of poster board (cut length wise) and roll it into a slightly tapered tube. Tuck the wide end into an old paper towel tube and secure the small end with tape. Decorate the handle (the paper towel tube) with aluminum foil, duct tape, and electrical tape (works well for buttons) until your heart's content.

Caution: darksaber in use!

Lightsaber Training Station

A few weighted balloons serve as targets for excited young Jedi's. We even kicked up the intensity by blowing bubbles for them to aim at. (PRO TIP: Have extra balloons on hand. Little Jedi's are very good at destroying targets.)

Being a Jedi takes a lot of training!

Obstacle Course

Our obstacle course consisted of five challenges:

1. Dodging Stormtrooper Fire (climbing through zig-zagging red string)
2. Wading Through the Trash Compactor (making it through knee deep "garbage)
5. Bowling Down the Stormtroopers (knocking down soda bottles with stormtrooper faces)
4. TIE Fighter Target Practice (shooting TIE fighter targets with a Nerf gun)
5. Detsroying the Death Star (throwing beanbags at our Death Star target)

On top of all that we had some wonderful people from the 501st and Rebel Legion come in to take pictures and talk with the kids (and adults). We even had our own Master Obi Wan give a lightsaber safety demonstration... it was amazing! These guys were really fabulous and turned the event from being pretty cool to being awesome!

Lightsaber safety demo in progress.

Note the proximity of the fan.

Also, a heads up for anyone working with these or other costumed performers (we have a few coming up in 2015) those amazing outfits are hot! Make sure you have adequate AC and plenty of fans to keep them cool. We had to drag in five fans just to make the room comfortable for those not in costume; I can't imagine how hot these guys were. They were absolutely wonderful about it and I didn't hear a single complaint... but they sure were happy when the fans made an appearance.

One last thing: check out the awesome dress I made! I may be a little proud of it.

Beep-boo-beep!