2011

Despite what George Lucas and his Star Wars franchise would have you believe, not all stormtroopers are evil.  At least their costumes aren’t.

Case in point: On July 17, Jacob French launched his own Troopertrek 2011 to raise funds for Australia’s Starlight Children’s Foundation. His mission: to raise $50,000 (AUD) by walking from Perth to Sydney while wearing a stormtrooper’s uniform.

“Over the course of the trek I will cross 4 states and cover approximately 5000km's in modified stormtrooper armour,” he announced on his February 16^th blog, www.everydayhero.com.au.

“The plan for now is to push a lightweight buggy with needed supplies an average distance of 35-40km for 5 days a week until the trek is complete.”

As of yesterday (August 4), French had raised $15,671.10 AUD in online donations for his campaign.

But French, a.k.a. Stormtrooper “TK-6283,” also acknowledged he was symbolically representing a much bigger organization: “The 501^st Legion,” also known as “Vader’s Fist,” a worldwide collective of volunteer Star Wars fans that attend charitable events, sci-fi conventions, visit children in hospitals and attend other social mixers dressed in costume (http://www.501st.com/index.php.)

One thousand more Pinups for Pink! 2011 charity calendars will be made available Dec. 20 in aid of the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.  Fun, sexy and kitschy, among the Vancouver women who posed for the pics are actress Ona Grauer, actress/producer Amanda Tapping, ET Canada’s Erin Cebula and Olympic athlete Ashleigh McIvor.

Founded by Penni Thow, Karolina Turek and Lisa von Sturmer, Pinups for Pink! has already raised $50,000 for the cause, through sales of 5000 calendar, donations and event profits, Thow tells Samaritanmag. The goal is $100,000. Calendars can also be purchased in bulk.

“Our objective is to inspire others to make a difference for a disease which 1 out of 9 of us will fight in our lifetime,” says the press release. “Using our careers, passions and strengths, we are proud and excited to collaborate on this project. We came upon the decision of a pinup calendar to showcase the beauty of a woman and everything she is — strong, powerful, confident, beautiful and classy.”