I organized the first Raleigh screening in 2006, because I loved Firefly. I loved it with all my heart and soul, in a way I’d never loved any TV show before. At the time, I didn’t expect to raise money for Equality Now. I expected to pay hundreds of dollars for the venue rental and movie rights out of my own pocket, to sit in a theater with maybe twelve other people and watch Serenity on the big damn screen again.
Instead, the 200-seat theater sold out. We had a costume contest, and several people actually showed up in costume. People bought raffle tickets. A donation was made to Equality Now. And I made new friends who have become like family.
Over the years, I learned more about Equality Now, and I found out about Kids Need to Read. While I love the work of these two organizations, and while I am proud to say that Raleigh has raised more than $21,500.00 for EN and $2,800.00 for KNTR (so far), the reason I keep coming back to this, year after year, is that family I mentioned.
I’ve been involved in a lot of clubs, groups, fandoms and events in my life. But I’ve never known as many generous, enthusiastic, resourceful, hard-working, intelligent and wonderful people as the Browncoats I’ve met doing Can’t Stop the Serenity.
Love keeps this thing flying, and love is why I’m here.
Jen
As a fan, I’ve encountered this more times than I can count: what keeps people coming back to Firefly is the fact that the fan community has made it a Family. I think it’s amazing that in this life we receive the family we are born into, but it doesn’t have to stop there. We can build a family of our own choice from the ground up and fan communities are just that. Raising money for organizations like Equality Now and Kids Need to Read and all the others CSTS has supported over the years makes the Firefly family something special–we gather out of love for our show and heroes … and then we give something back.
I’ve never met Jen personally but we’ve correspoded. Her help and encouragement along with Tanya Morris of the Charlotte ‘Coats gave me the courage to start the Norfolk CSTS. We’re on our third year now, one big, happy family!