A Star Wars and comic book-themed foyer display and coloring contest at the Washington Public Library this month were sponsored by a Washington local who’s shown the last few years that not all is evil beneath a well-known movie costume.

Washington city employee Keith Henkel has been a fan of the Star Wars franchise since he saw the first film as a child in a drive-in theater in 1977. Forty years later Henkel was at a comic book convention in Chicago when he first discovered the 501st Legion, a volunteer organization of Star Wars and costume enthusiasts that also does charity work through volunteering and fundraising. When Henkel first learned the start-up costs of joining the the 501st Legion and building your own costume, joining seemed improbable, “I went back a year later to the comic con up there in Chicago again and talked to them again and my wife said ‘You really look really interested in this,’ and I said ‘Oh my god, it just looks so cool.’ And she said, ‘You know what? Let’s do it, let’s build something.’”

It took Henkel about a year and a half to build his own Stormtrooper costume, and he is now an active member of the 501st Legion, Central Garrison, Korriban Squad, and his sons have since gotten into the fun by building their own Star Wars character costumes. For a man who has loved Star Wars for decades, Henkel shares what he’d tell his younger self if he could, “I would tell him to be a lot more careful with the toys that he was playing with.”

“Bad Guys Doing Good” is the slogan of the 501st Legion, and you can find more information here. You can also hear more from Henkel during a two-part Halcyon House Washington Page on air and at kciiradio.com.