For the second year, The Cerebral Palsy Association of Nassau County is holding their Annual Sci-Fi Mini Convention at Levittown Hall, 201 Levittown Parkway, Hicksville, NY on Saturday, July 22nd from 12pm – 5pm. This event is sponsored by Jovia Financial Credit Union.
This year’s MiniCon will feature members of the 501st Legion’s Empire City Garrison, The Rebel Legion’s Echo Base, and the Saber Guild’s Endor Temple in their Star Wars Costumes. There will also be visits by members of the Long Island Ghost Busters and Princesses from Royal Princess Prep Entertainment. There will be games and activities including Blast-A-Trooper, Jedi Training, and meet and greets with media guests. There will be Light Saber demonstrations from the Saber Guild.
Chris Feehan, Development Assistant at The Cerebral Palsy Association of Nassau County (CPNassau), is the point of contact between the 501st and CPNassau and the person spearheading MiniCon. He said that while last year’s event was a run-away success, it happened almost organically. “Last year’s Con came together by chance. The 501st Legion wanted to put on a small event for (CPNassau) with some cosplayers from the 501st and the Rebel Legion. We then expanded that and included the Saber Guild and the
Ghostbusters and some other costuming people to kind of put on a little mini convention to help raise money for the Cerebral Palsy Association. Well, that kind of exploded and we got some additional guests; we got some actors, some wrestlers, and some professional cosplayers to come together. This year, we’ve had a little more time to plan and learn from our experiences. We have even more guests and more exciting activities for kids and adults.”
A lot of the fundraising is being generated by the activities. There are a number of things both children and adults can participate in. Feehan detailed some of the different experiences available. “If you want to blast the trooper you can take some shots with a Nerf gun at some of the stormtroopers. There is also our big trash compactor set. We’re charging $5 for that. If you’d like to do Jedi training with the Saber Guild, that’s going to be a $5 activity. The activities are very family friendly priced, so that you can choose to do what you want to do.”
Another source for donations is the raffles, with many collectibles and event tickets available. “There are going to be some incredible raffles. We’ve gotten some great donations from some local vendors, including Joebba’s Palace, who’s going to be there as a vendor. They donated a large TIE fighter worth about $200 that we’re going to be raffling off. There are some large Star Wars baskets and other baskets that have other donated items that we’ve gotten throughout the year. There are things like Six Flags tickets, Dorney Park tickets, tickets to different Mets games, and some other sports memorabilia that was donated by our partners.” Feehan said.
For those who want to take home something crafted, there are handknit items for sale. “The Ladies Council Auxiliary is actually making some homemade knit items, including some baby Grogu dolls, hats and pillowcases with Star Wars themes. These are all things that they’ve handmade over the past two months, which they are donating to sell at the Sci Fi MiniCon. So there will be some neat merchandise there that’s handmade and handcrafted with love, all to raise money for this association.”
Feehan is excited to see where MiniCon goes in the future. Considering its humble beginnings, the event is already a success. “We really hope (to expand) we’re going to see what works, what doesn’t work and what really gets people excited. If we start seeing a real nice crowd attend, we may expand it into an even bigger, better convention next year. We just want to do something that’s for the community, to help support our agency in the most fun way possible. Last year we had over 1000 people and the event was only three hours long, from five to eight o’clock at night. And that was because it came together so late we couldn’t get the venue for the whole day. I think (with this year’s Con running) from noon to five, we’re hoping we’ll have in excess of 2000 people throughout the day.”
SPECIAL GUEST APPEARANCES BY:
Rochelle Davis (Actress)
Sarah in The Crow (1994) / Hell House
George Papadimatos (Actor)
The Deuce / Daredevil / Jimmy’s & Jenny’s
Angelo Mercado (Actor)
New Amsterdam / Little Voice / Model
Lula Lukas (Artist)
Freelance and Comic Book Artist
Michael Jan Friedman (Author)
Star Trek Novelist and Comic Book Author
Rage & Kaos (Pro Wrestlers)
Stranglehold Championship Wrestling Network
Movie Cars: Batmobile & DeLorean
(Weather Permitting)
Robin Channing
Mind-bending Magician & Performer
COSPLAYERS INCLUDING:
Angel_Ta2 Jacobella Luongo
mcheretic / Abigail Ruby Rinekso