‘Bad guys doing good’: How a group of Spokane professionals transforms from day jobs to charitable Star Wars villains

Dressed in clunky, barely breathable armor often limiting their vision, Stormtroopers may be seen walking through the halls of local hospitals on any given day.

The Star Wars villains aren’t there for any rebel spies, but rather looking to bring smiles to the faces of kids at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center.

“Bad guys doing good” is the motto and mission for the worldwide charity group The 501st Legion.

They have members in Africa, Asia, Australia and just about anywhere else you can think of – including Spokane. While they operate around the globe, each pocket of the 501st works as its own self-contained unit of cosplaying charities.

Spokane’s unit, Havoc Squad, partners with more than 10 charity groups throughout the Pacific Northwest, including the Ronald McDonald House, Shriners Children Spokane and True Colors Fund, a nonprofit that helps homeless youth.

They’ve appeared in multiple hospitals throughout Washington, including Seattle’s Children Hospital, where their larger unit raised $25,000.

They don’t just cosplay in hospitals – some of them work in them, as well.

Dr. Bennett Gladden from Sacred Heart is one of them.

Gladden’s been a member of the 501st for more than 10 years, having started in 2012. His wife also attends events dressed as Mandalorian warrior Bo-Katan Kryze.

“Even though I didn’t have a costume yet, they found a way to include me,” Gladden said.

While not the typical villain the group portrays, arguably Gladden’s most recognizable costume is C-3PO. It took two years for him to make out of steel.

Besides local functions, he’s attended events on behalf of the 501st in Atlanta and Kansas City, Missouri. Gladden and other 501st members were even picked as dancing stormtroopers for “Weird Al” Yankovic.

But his favorite performance was when he visited his first kids in the hospital after college in Kansas City.

“They smile, their parents cry, you try not to cry.”

While Havoc Squad also turns out for symphonies and documentaries, it primarily appears at charities such as Make-A-Wish.

“It’s one of the most rewarding things we do,” local Havoc squad leader Gabe Strine said. “There’s such joy, it’s just hard to put into words how much love there is in the room. At a time where they’re (kids) having a pretty difficult time, it’s pretty cool to see Darth Vader walk into the room.”

The worldwide organization formed 26 years ago (one might even say a long time ago in a galaxy … right here).

Albin Johnson, a long-time Star Wars fan, started putting together professional Star Wars costumes to celebrate the 20th anniversary of “Episode IV, A New Hope,” in 1997. He worked with his friends to put these costumes together in Southern California, starting a website to show off the progress on costumes and creating a geocities site for people to share pictures of Star Wars cosplayers in the wild. The name for the group is essentially random, and meant to sound like military unit, he said on the organization’s website.

While Johnson described the website as “unremarkable,” it amassed massive internet fame in the time leading up to the rerelease of “Episode IV.” It’s no wonder either, with the level of effort and production put into each costume.

“There’s nothing that comes out of a bag or off the shelf,” Strine said .

Modern costumes built by the 501st include a variety of high-tech elements, such as 3D printing models and resin-casted armor. But back in the 1990s, they built costumes with traditional plastic molding like LucasFilm had for “A New Hope.”

The only issue they found was, unlike props, these costumes had to be worn for far longer – and used many more times.

“We have to make it better than the actual thing,” Strine said of the costumes.

Despite the laborious work put into making these costumes – with a small one starting at four months and $400 dollars, and most costumes taking about a year to build – many 501st members find it in themselves to make several.

“I’m at seven,” Strine said.

Soon he’ll be at 10, once he finishes the three costumes he’s working on.

With their proficiency for building these costumes, the 501st eventually caught the eye of Star Wars creator George Lucas, who invited them to the Rose Parade he led in 2007. Lucas, recognizing their potential, then authorized the 501st to use the Star Wars name as long as their costumes were authentic and they never made money off their works. Meanwhile, Gladden was one of only 20 in the world approved by Lucasfilm to wear the C3PO costume.

They’ve even been added to the franchise’s mythos, with Anakin Skywalker’s clone legion named after the 501st, as well as the stormtrooper cadre of his eventual alter ego, Darth Vader.

To this day, the group hasn’t made any money from its appearances.

“Whenever you see us out and about, there’s some local charity benefiting, and that’s our payment,” Strine said .

“It’s a real special feeling when you go to these events, and you look down, can barely see out of these costumes, and you see these kids smiling. And then you look up, and their parents are smiling. too,” he said.

Strine joined the 501st after seeing them out at a Halloween symphony concert in 2018.

“I think all of us are just out here trying to bring smiles to other people,” Gladden said.

Their next appearance will be at the Disturbance in the Force Northwest Passages event Saturday.

They will have a meet-and-greet in January for those interested in joining, Strine said.