Redback Garrison

Date: 19th October 2012

Venue: Southbank park lands

Time: 4pm til 9pm

Mission: walk 10kms around the Brisbane from Southbank

Trooper Attendance:
Anakinra ID
APOK TX - Medic
Ashbash TB
Beanie IC
Bigmac TK
Buzzard TK
Cutter SL
Darkvoyd TK
Deimos TR
Deltorn TB
Doc TB
EXPLOSION ED TK
Glitch TK
hopfot TX
Jimcricket CT
Mortogg CT
MrKrunch TD
muppet TI
oigen TK
Phantom BH
Phoenix TKC
Rents TI
Rubber TD
Stormraven ID

Rebel Legion Attendance:
Sithprincess Padme Snowbunny
Thrawn V'jun Jedi (Rebel Legion)


Guest Trooper Attendance:
Kev Vader

Support Crew:
Duck
cobra
The Scotsman
Lei
Tirilia
Philip
Cristy

Detail:
MS Walk 2012: The year we set records.

This year’s MS Moonlight walk will be marked as one of the most successful since first trooped by the 501st in 2005 when just 2 members then part of TAG walked it. Each year growing members and more and more walkers signing up, we reached 35 this year.

The mission was to walk 10kms from Southbank parklands Ferris wheel to the bottom of the kangaroo point, up and over the story bridge, into the busy riverside restaurant precinct thru the city botanical gardens and homewards finish via the goodwill bridge. The walk is to raise money and awareness and support people with Multiple Sclerosis.
We begun raising money with the Lego troop a few weeks ago which raised $1012 over the 3 days as well as personal donations and public and family donations to the team tally.
I set the target to raise $2000 which was $500 more from last year, we broke that and smashed our way into $3000 and at the start of the walk the teams tally was $3212 and we are still getting more donations.

I would like to make mention of Wades personal donation tally of $450! Congrats mate.


The event begun with myself, Oigen and Bigmac waiting for the change tent to be setup around 4pm, a personal change room kindly erected for us by MS staff as a thank you for all the work and promo we do for them (this year we didn’t get any newspaper shoots ect) and it was planned to do a quick promo picture at 5pm with as many troopers we could get ready. I started to round up troopers when the photographer arrived around 5:10pm. This picture is said to be used for next year’s sign up pages, so looking forward to that!



As more and more troopers arrived with bags in tow the change room was getting full, a few tetris movements of bags cleared out a bit more room for the coffin of Buzzard to arrive and get changed just in time for us to march out in formation at 5:50pm.



We marched 2 by 2 to the starting line at which we always do each year, Led by our first ever SITH appearance, MS walker Cutter in his Darth Nihilus. A quick nutbush city limit dance in which a few of us forgot the moves to, it was the count down to the start at 6pm.




One Scout was ready but forgot the bike itself but still assumed the position



So the walk started quite quickly, we managed to move to the left of the southbank path to form a steady march



The supporting Wranglers led by the Cobra with assistants from Tirilia, Lei, Azza, Thescotsman, Duck, Christy and Philip all helped keep the 30 odd troopers walking in line and with any hazards such as a bollard that I believe someone ran into at some point along the way?



And sometimes the wranglers need to hold a blaster against a troopers head to make them listen.



As daylight slipped into darkness the red glowing Sabers of Nihilus led the path up front into the areas of the cliffs, at the rare of the march were the Rebels JediPrincess and Thrawn V'jun (also his first outing with the Redbacks and first time walker) with his slowly dimming blue saber, due to the amount of walkers and how many we had in our team, we went to a new photo vantage spot overlooking the Brisbane CBD that didn’t hold up the path, for a massive team group picture.



The first water rest point was at the parks underneath the cliffs of kangaroo point, quick refreshment and adjustments to boots and thigh pieces we continued and settled into rhythm for the next 8kms.



So now we reach mid-way underneath the storybridge where the next water rest stop is well positioned in front of a Pub known as The Story Bridge Hotel, a very popular location for the Imperial forces to rest and cool off at this cantina. Tables full of Buckets, resting troopers and local beverage downed, a tradition dating back since the dawn of MS and 501st walkers!


Beverage provided by the XO Cobra, MANY THANKS SIR!





Walk continued over the storybridge, the vehicles passing sounding their horns for support and advising the troopers the jedis were chasing us! Some troopers were inundated with some Cookies product, with some finding these items inside the armour and helmet, turns out it was a sneaky way to export these Earth delicacies to the Death Star probably picked up from the Cantina.



The next section is generally the toughest and hardest section, not because of the steep path or bending roads, NO, it’s the PUBLIC dinning in the riverside restaurant precinct, years and years of walking via this path have had troopers lost to the photo taking crazy civilians, this year, we marched and just did not stop, no matter what the crazy request was.
The pace was steady as we passed the gates into the city botanical gardens marking just 3kms to go, some of the troopers started to drop off and readjustments and helmets and blasters became heavy



The dark gardens slowly became brighten by the lights of the 1km final check point just before the Goodwill Bridge, the last hurdle before the final leg. Troopers heads where seeing things as seen below when one was spotted carrying a model figurine of a Naboo Gungan, he must have been dehydrated because if Lord Vader would have spotted this, he would have felt to full power of the force!



Once passing the bridge and back onto the final 500m straight the troopers reformed the march of 2 by 2 formation lead again by Darth Nihilus along the path to the finish line.




A quick few pictures with the locals and back to the change tent, one Trooper pushed himself a little to much and passed out at the tent still in armour, PLEASE IN FUTURE don’t be a hero and go beyond the point of collapsing. Seriously pull out and seek a wrangler to help you out, we won’t think less of you!
The trooper was cared for by the medical volunteers and nursed back to good health.
Troopers changed and headed to the restaurant that was booked for us but had some crazy 2 different menus under the same location setup. Turns out take-away can’t be served inside the restaurant booked for us. Ohh well next year I’ll get it sorted.


Charity Funds Raised:
$3600 and still climbing!

Injuries/BLISTER REPORT:
many sore feet and calves plus many many blisters!
Hoppy over doing himself.
Ashbash also overdid it a bit at the end of the walk and had to be brought around with a good dose of sugar and de-armored by Duck and Tirilia.


Malfunctions:
Oigen's shin had to be fix up. serious armor bites there, tirilia fixed at the pub.

Public Incidents: N/A

Mission Status:
RECORD SETTING YEAR for the walk with the first ever SITH LORD walking, most amount of money ever raised in the history of 501st walking MS, and most signed up members!

Photos:
http://s45.photobucket.com/albums/f69/50...ht%20Walk/

Final Comments:
if i have missed something or someone please let me know.
MANY THANKS TO ALL THE WRANGLERS AND TROOPERS for helping me make this years a blast of an event for you all.

Great report Beanie.

And awesome job everyone!

Beanie, that was the best report you have ever written!!

Well done to all troopers, wranglers and those that donated, Thankyou

thanks muppet, only spent 2 work days writing it up.
also MANY THANKS TO ALL THE WRANGLERS AND TROOPERS for helping me make this years a blast of an event.

Nice work guys! Wish I could make it to an event like this

Nice report Beanie! Was a great troop but next year I'll be in proper walking shoes and stocking up on my own sugary cookies.

I'd just like to also mention that a good friend of mine from roller derby took a fair bit of photos for us and also made a donation to our team. Pretty sure he only went there because I mentioned to him about a heap of us trooping.

ohhh yes, thank you to your photographer and the one from MS for supplying us the pictures as well as the wranglers own cameras.

Awesome Report Mr Bean .

Well done everyone. I was still finding blisters till yesterday, found one on the back of my ankle. Also think I might just wrangle next year.

(Tuesday 23-Oct-2012, 02:34 PM)ashbash Wrote: [ -> ]Nice report Beanie! Was a great troop but next year I'll be in proper walking shoes and stocking up on my own sugary cookies.

I'd just like to also mention that a good friend of mine from roller derby took a fair bit of photos for us and also made a donation to our team. Pretty sure he only went there because I mentioned to him about a heap of us trooping.

I think you should pack some hydrate :P lucky I had some other wise you might of ended up in the same way said trooper went. Sorry I didn't get to said trooper with some powerad sooner might have helped.

I would REALLY like to tank Duck for helping me through the night. It's a lot harder than I thought it was going to be in the royal guard and she had to do a few quick grabs so I didn't end up in the drink or meeting a few polls.

(Tuesday 23-Oct-2012, 03:43 PM)Deimos Wrote: [ -> ]Sorry I didn't get to said trooper with some powerad sooner might have helped.

I'm guessing you're talking about me. :P
It's alright, I pushed it, was my own damn fault. Thanks for the Powerade though.

"This will be a day long remembered" - Darth Vader

Great Mission Report Beanie!

Such an awesome night and thoroughly enjoyed! I soo can't wait to troop with you all next time! :D

Yay!!! I'm getting more famous! I really do hope they use that top photo for next year!

Well done Beanie, great report. Thanks for the beer Cobra. I had a great time and only managed to walk into 1 park bench and 1 bollard.
Thanks to Hoppie for checking my armour after the bench incident and to Duck and all the wrangles for looking after us.

Awesome report and awesome night!! So cool we broke a few records/garrison firsts :D

Beanie great job all round mate. Your enthusiasm for this event is great. Can't wait for another long slog next year. Love this event!!!!!!!

@ Hoppy - Mate next time you can go as a jedi. But proud of my Spec Ops brother for not dying. Semper Fie!!

Great troop report Beanie and a great troop in general.
This was my 4th moonlight walk, 3rd with the redbacks and it didnt dissappoint.
I swear, if you go though all the pics of us in armour, if you took our helmets off youd see a great big smile on all of our faces.

This is always gonna be a highlight troop for me, not just for the cause, but for the companionship that all redbacks show to each other.
It is a value I am proud of and one Im sure many other groups wish they had.

Kudos to everyone involved with the night, you all did an outstanding job.