I am not a cos-player.

I don’t dress up and go to comic conventions and the like. Usually. I did once, but it was on a whim and I threw the outfit together in a day. Not terribly elaborate. You don’t know elaborate costumes until you’ve been to one of these conventions. People make some amazing costumes. They spend years on some of them.  Full suits of armor, epic Groot costumes, outfits with electronics, and more. I’ve never done that.

Until now. My wife signed me up for a charity 5K in support of CASA of Travis County. CASA is a pretty cool organization.  They help children in need – abused and neglected children. I won’t elaborate too much right now, but check future posts or the Donate page (or check out their website http://www.casatravis.org/).

Anyway, in order to run I need a costume. I could have thrown on a cape, rented a cheap Spiderman jumpsuit, or put a belt around by head and called myself Quailman. Unfortunately, I am incapable of doing anything half way. Nothing against anyone who goes like this…they help children just as much as I am going to.  But for me, If I’m going to dress as a Superhero, I’m going all out. Why?  Well for one, I want to bring a smile to the faces of children I meet at the event.  I want them to feel like they are meeting the real Superhero, not an imitator. I want to BE the Superhero. Second, it’s just the way I am.  I go all out.

After racking my brain, I settled on Star-Lord as my superhero. For a number of reasons. I will elaborate in a blog post later.

As I began the arduous task of fundraising, a very smart individual (by the name of Steven Olender) gave me some advice.  “People love stories and pictures,” he wrote me. Rather than just ask for money, Steven advised that I give people something back by documenting the creation of my costume and preparation for the race.  That way, it’s a two way street.  People donate money to the organization, and I give them stories, pictures, and highlights from the day of the event in return.  They SEE some of the impact of their donation!

What a great idea.  For the first few days, I began throwing random updates on Facebook and Twitter. After thinking about it (and learning how easy WordPress is to use), I decided a blog would be a better format to keep people involved and updated. For a modest investment of $18.00, I created this site. Cool, huh?

One note: All donations made go straight to CASA. Everything I am spending on the costume and on the site is coming straight out of my pocket! If you donate…fear not! All the money will go towards CASA’s mission of helping abused children.

So, thanks for joining me on my journey to become Star-Lord!