TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — "May the 4th be with You" is a greeting you hear the first week of this new month, every year to celebrate the love of Star Wars. But "Revenge of the 5th" is catching on as we highlight the bad guys doing good, in a galaxy far, far away.
I discovered some local members of a group that's so much more than a costuming club. They're fighting the rebellion and making families feel good at the same time.
"Well my name is Scott," says Scott Woodworth.
But really who's the Imperial inside?
Woodworth claims to be just your average Joe...
But he's got an impressive collection and an alter ego: Call him TK41469 - A stormtrooper loyal to the Galactic Empire.
But there's so much more to being a member of what's known as the Dune Sea Garrison in Southern Arizona, a unit of the worldwide 501st Legion.
"You have to have a screen accurate costume. That's the price of admission," Scott told me.
"There's an undersuit you have to wear and then I've got all the electronics that I wear with my kit so that I sound like a Stormtrooper... a lot of my inspiration was like the Stormtroopers at Disneyland so, you know, I just tried to emmulate that."
A fun hobby within a massive fandom for sure but it's all for one reason alone: to make people smile.
"If you show up somewhere, especially when it's a handful of us or multiples in the same costume, people immediately recognize what's going on," Scott said.
On this sunny morning in deserts of the Southwest, not Tatooine or Jedha, we found these villians visiting children at Tucson Medical Center.
It's just one of 200 events carried out by these bad guys every year that give everyone a new hope.
"They're really not digging their environment, right? They're stuck in the hospital room. They can't do anything because of whatever illness or disease they're suffering from or injury," Scott said.
"That touches all of us and that's one of those things that a lot of us really enjoy doing."
The Force of these passionate volunteer cosplayers follows them everywhere. From hospital rooms to conventions to fan events, from a galaxy far, far away. To a place that's near and dear to all of our hearts.
"Now these characters they've only seen on the television or on movies are not only in the same building they're walking down the hall and maybe even speaking to them," Scott said.
The work they're doing to lead out of the dark side and into the healing light speaks to all of us, too.
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Dan Spindle co-anchors Good Morning Tucson on KGUN 9 and is an award-winning storyteller whose work has earned him honors from the Rocky Mountain Southwest Emmys, the Associated Press and the Utah Society of Professional Journalists for both anchoring and reporting. Dan is passionate about history and loves to explore the Grand Canyon State. Share your story ideas with Dan by emailing dan.spindle@kgun9.com or by connecting on Instagram, or X.
