The Czech Garrison operates in the Czech Republic as one of the "outposts" of the worldwide organization called the 501st Legion. We are purely volunteer costuming organization with costumes of the "bad guys" from the Star Wars universe. We focus on the costume making on a professional level and thus try to get Star Wars into wider awareness. Under the slogan "even the bad guys can be heroes“ we devote to charity activities at both local and national level – With our costumes we are trying to bring joy and help those, who have not had much luck in their life.

We hope that our website will help you to get as much information as possible about our organization and that you‘ll find everything you are interested in. If you are looking for information about our mission, activities, parent organization (known as the 501st Legion), conditions of membership or you would like to know more information about our charity work, section Our Garrison is the right place for you.

If you wish to invite our garrison to your event, ask for anything you couldn’t find on our website, or you would like to start cooperation with our organization, please see the Contacts section.

And most importantly, keep in mind:

EVEN THE BAD GUYS CAN BE HEROES!

Our organization represents the 501st Legion in the Czech Republic. Since we are one of its "outposts", our focus is derived from it. We are purely volunteer costuming organization with "bad guys" costumes from the Star Wars universe. We focus on the costume making on a professional level and thus try to get Star Wars into wider awareness. Under the slogan "even the bad guys can be heroes“ we devote to charity activities at both local and national level – With our costumes we are trying to bring joy and help those, who have not had much luck in their life.

We focus mainly on children's events, where our presence not only evokes the authentic atmosphere of Star Wars, but we're also trying to bring children’s heroes closer to them. We also participate in various festivals for young people. In such events, we always have a promotional booth where children and adults can explore our costumes, take a picture with us for free or get more information about our activities. Any funds or charitable donation which we receive for our performances, are recorded and sent to our charity partner.

We in the Czech Garrison strive to be one big family and meet outside of official events. We help each other and solve personal problems and concerns. Members regularly finish events together with a friendly meeting, when they have the opportunity not only to evaluate the event, but also to a friendly chat. Relationships between members of the Czech Garrison are due to such events and meetings really warm. Czech Garrison Command endeavor to consult all matters with members, thus ensuring the smooth running of the organization.

The Czech Garrison welcomes all those interested in future membership as well. For this purpose, there is a post of “cadet” in the Czech Garrison, who though not having a costume can go to events with us and help us at our promotional stand. It is an excellent opportunity to get to know each other and quickly fit into the group. But still we put great emphasis on precision and compliance with the rules of the membership. Thanks to that, we did not have to deal with any serious problems so far.

We all do this activity voluntarily and in our spare time. While our hobby is financially very challenging, the reward for it is priceless. When we see children’s happy faces, we know that our work is not wasted.

The Czech Garrison with its costumes or its actions has nothing to do with politics or promotion of extreme right-wing movements. Costumes similarity is purely coincidental. On this matter, we place great emphasis. Our rules cover and severely punish any member involvement in such movements and participation in the events of right-wing or left-wing orientation in costumes.

Rules of the 501st Legion also treat criminal past of our applicants for membership or members themselves. These matters are treated individually and very carefully.

The Charter of the Legion says, that the 501st Legion is an apolitical organization, distancing from any political parties and political events. Czech Garrison is bound by the Charter, and therefore can’t participate in events, which can be used to promote political goals. Although the thought of the event may be for a good cause, the Legion can’t afford to take responsibility e.g. for use of photographs for political purposes.

The Czech Outpost, which later became the Czech Garrison, was founded by Radek Kriz and Zdenek Klimovic on February 22, 2007, back then as a separate unit on the Czech territory, which did not fall under the club known as the 501st Legion. The goal was the same as in the neighboring countries; to start to bring together fans who would wish to have costume of bad guys from the Star Wars universe. After creating the first website on March 23, 2008, five future members joined. On March 28, 2008 the Czech Outpost applied for joining to the 501st Legion with three members. On September 19, 2008, this request was accepted and so Czech territory was officially representing the 501st Legion under the name "Czech Outpost of the 501st Legion." On the Legion Website this information was announced on September 21, 2008 and met with very positive feedback:

(Dean Plantamura , TK -899 , Carolina Garrison )

Nobody expected the further expansion of the Czech Outpost. We thought that nobody in the Czech Republic would be interested in such organization. Our surprise was even sweeter when we already had 15 active members at the end of 2009 and number of applicants for membership still increasing. The year 2010 was marked by the further development; we managed to establish cooperation with major partners and sponsors who helped us even more to make children happy. Happiness never neglected our unit in 2011, when we in the first half of the year got at 27 active members. Thus, we were able to apply for the transfer of our unit from Outpost to Garrison. Legion’s Council granted our request on August 5, 2011. The continuous growth of members, number of invitations to events and full support of our parent organization the 501st Legion still proves that the path that we took was the right direction. Even bad guys can be heroes!

Radek Kriz
TK - 2232, founder of the Czech Garrison