You know, when the nights become chilly, the leaves change color and the lenses in your Stormtrooper helmet start to fog-up on the inside, it means that Fall has arrived. Adding to the excitement we get from dreaming of the season that brings us such fantastic things as apple cider, bonfires and Girl Scout Cookies, we are super-anxious to start trooping at all of the fun Fall events leading us up to the Holiday season.

There are a few great events on the way to you in October.

The next big event where you can come out and meet the troopers of the 501st Legion will be this Saturday, October 6th, when garrisons across the country help DK Publishing promote STAR WARS READS DAY! The Old Line Garrison will be at a number of area booksellers including Barnes & Noble, Pottery Barn Kids and Books-a-Million promoting the empire’s agenda of literacy, reading, books, Star Wars, imagination and FUN!

On Saturday, October 13th, we will be at the Arbutus Volunteer Fire Department (5200 Southwestern Blvd. Arbutus, MD) for Children’s Safety Day! This is an annual community educational event that offers kids fun activities and training on how to practice good  fire-safety habits. This even features fire-engine rides, 9-1-1 call training, a smoke-house simulator and more. This event runs from 11am-3pm.

We are also excited to be involved with the Howard County Autism Society’s “One Step Closer Autism Walk” on November 3rd from 9am-12pm. For more information on this event, or to find out how you can help, please visit www.howard-autism.org.

Another great library event is coming your way, when we will be at the Severna Park Branch of the Anne Arundel County Public Library for STAR WARS @ THE LIBRARY! On November 10th from 10am until 1pm, you can come out and meet the troops, participate in some fun games and activities and of course go home with some great books! The Library is at  45 W. McKinsey Rd in Severna Park, Maryland.

We are working on a great deal of Holiday Season events, including a few local Toys For Tots appearances, the Mayor’s Holiday Parade in Hampden, and many more. Stay tuned to the Old Line News Feed for more information!

Join the 501st Old Line Garrison, Rebel Legion’s Terrapin Base, The Defenders of the Force and many more at this year’s STAR WARS NIGHT on Saturday, June 23rd at 5:00pm!

The Baysox will take on the Reading Phillies at 6:35pm for an awesome Saturday evening of MiLB Baseball at Prince George’s Stadium in Bowie, MD! Tickets are fantastically cheap and plentiful, but will sell quickly!

The gates will open at 5:00pm for you and the family to tour the concourse and concession areas and meet your favorite Star Wars characters from the Rebel Alliance, Galactic Empire and the Republic. We will also have a charity SHOOT THE TROOPER game for you to play where you can use a Nerf gun to battle real-life Stormtroopers and Imperial personnel!

The Defenders of the Force will be back again this year with more action-packed lightsaber duels between innings and a climactic night-time battle between the Jedi and Sith!

The night will end with a fireworks show after the game, set to the dramatic score of the Star Wars films!

For more information and to purchase tickets, please go to the Bowie Baysox Homepage.

See you there, and LONG LIVE THE EMPIRE!

We had another great winter! We were honored once again this past December to participate in the Mayor’s Christmas Parade in Hampden, and we look forward to the 2012 parade.

The charitable donations really rolled-in this winter too! We helped out MIX 106.5FM and the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center with their 23^rd Annual Radiothon, which brought in over $865,000 in donations. Also, the annual Maryland State Police Polar Bear Plunge team ‘Some Like It Hoth’, comprised of Old Line Garrison members, their friends and family, broke their previous year’s record by personally raising $4,612.06 for Special Olympics of Maryland, and having a ton of fun at the beach while doing it!

As a preview of events to come this Spring and Summer, here are some upcoming events where you can catch Old Line Garrison invading your planet:

We look forward to another awesome Star Wars at the Library event at the Arbutus Branch of the Baltimore County Public Library on Saturday, April 21^st at 2:00pm. This event will feature crafts and activities as well as showcase books and stories from the Star Wars Universe.

May 4^th every year is Star Wars Day (May the Fourth be with you!), and the next day is just as great… FREE COMIC BOOK DAY! We will be at a number of Maryland comic book shops and booksellers on Saturday, May 5th to promote literacy and good, old-fashioned Comic Book & Science Fiction fandom.

On Saturday, May 12^th, the Archbishop Neale School in La Plata, MD will be hosting a fundraiser Sci-Fi/Comic Con. The event will open at 10:00am, and Imperial Recon elements have gathered intelligence suggesting a Viking presence in the area…

Sunday, May 20^th will be the date of this year’s Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Walk in Frederick, MD, and OLG plans on being there to do our part. Get more details on this event at the CFF Maryland Chapter website.

And finally for this preview, we are excited to announce that we are once again planning to take Prince George’s Stadium by force on Saturday, June 23^rd for the Bowie Baysox’s Annual Star Wars Night! If you’ve been in attendance for this event in years past, you’ll know that it keeps getting better every year! Get more information at the Bowie Baysox website.

We look forward to seeing you soon, and check back often for more news and announcements!

Did you know… That you can add our Events Calendar to your personal Google Calendar for updates on events as soon as we post them?

In its 22 years, the MIX 106.5 Radiothon has raised nearly $14 million for Hopkins Children’s Center.

We are very proud and are very honored to have participated in this wonderful annual event, and we look forward to lending our hands to many more events in the coming year.

A very special thanks to MIX 106.5 and Johns Hopkins for allowing us to share this experience and meet so many wonderful people.

Here is a link to a full article about the event:

http://www.hopkinschildrens.org/tpl_news.aspx?id=10822

And here are some YouTube videos of our appearances on local TV newscasts:

http://youtu.be/9BfIzWhyW08

http://youtu.be/yuWAoL0mGJs

The 39th Annual Mayor’s Christmas Parade will be held on December 4th, 2011 at 2:00pm.

This event is one that we look forward to every Holiday season. Last year, our troopers braved the windy, freezing cold for hours before being given our marching orders. All of the chattering teeth and running in-place was quite worth it to see the looks on the faces of little kids and big kids alike when Lord Vader and the Empire came marching down the streets of historic Hampden!

Come out and see us and all of the other great groups, local personalities, dancing troupes and marching bands that make this Holiday parade such a blast!

Please come and help out Toys For Tots this holiday season by donating a new, unopened toy for children in need.

This event will be held in Veterans Park by Dundalk Village Shopping Center between Dundalk Ave and Trading Place. This will be a great Holiday event with raffles and prizes, pictures with Santa and Star Wars characters, a parade at 3:00pm, plus much more fun and activities for the whole family.

Please help out Toys For Tots this holiday season by donating a new, unopened toy for children in need. As a special thank you, your toy donation valued at $10 or more will get you a free picture with Santa and a free raffle ticket for great prizes and services donated by the local business community.

See you there!

Tickets start at $13, and the 501st Legion, Rebel Legion and the Defenders of the Force will be in the main concourse at 12:30 when the gates open! Come meet us and have a great family day at the ballpark!

More Info and Tickets Here!

The 2011 Baltimore Comic-Con will be held from August 20-21 at the Baltimore Convention Center in Downtown Baltimore. There are a ton of great guests, including this year’s Guest of Honor, Stan “The Man” Lee! Also, Comic-Con will once again host the annual Harvey Awards! The Harvey Awards are one of the comic book industry’s oldest and most respected awards.

You can get more information and purchase tickets here.

The 501st Legion’s Old Line Garrison will be on-hand all weekend recruiting for The Empire and posing for pictures! Come by and visit our table and find out how to become a Stormtrooper!

This is a huge annual event that raises millions of dollars for the athletes and programs associated with Special Olympics Maryland. Our Plunge Team, ‘Some Like It Hoth’, has registered for the event and is raising money in the form of pledges from donors wanting us to jump into the icy Chesapeake Bay at Sandy Point State Park near Annapolis, MD on January 28th, 2012.

Some Like It Hoth will be participating in the 1:00pm plunge. The team will be supported by the troopers of Old Line Garrison and the Rebel Legion’s Terrapin Base, who will be on-hand for both the 1:00pm and 3:00pm plunges to meet and greet the citizens of the Empire, join them in photos and sign autographs.

More information regarding where to find us on Plunge Day will follow, but for now, please visit Team Some Like It Hoth’s Donation Page and feel free to donate to a great cause. Every cent counts!

If you are interested in taking the plunge yourself, please go to plungemd.com to get more info and register!

See you at the beach!