Visitors from a galaxy far, far away came to Washington Wednesday evening to award those who participated in a coloring and drawing contest hosted by the Washington Public Library last month.

Washington city employee and certified Stormtrooper Keith Henkel helped sponsor the contest, tying in with the May 4th Star Wars holiday, and he and his sons Dylan and Jared came to Central Park dressed up as a Stormtrooper and Tie Pilots to give out prizes and take photos with children. The contest was judged by fellow members of Henkel’s Stormtrooper legion, and the winners were Nora Untermarkt for preschool through second grade, Kaelyn Wallner for third through fifth grade, and Brayden Warwick for sixth through 12th grade. A random drawing was held for a grand prize Stormtrooper helmet which went to Benton Brown.

Henkel says he and the other legion members enjoyed judging the Star Wars and comic book-themed artwork, “I hope we can do it again in the future and get the kids doing some activities and one teacher passed them out to her entire class and she used it as a class project. I thought that was really neat. But getting the kids excited about the comic books, taking some pictures with the Star Wars people and the little kids that smile and come up and give the fist bumps is just priceless.”

Walt’s Trooper Factory donated the Stormtrooper helmet, and Henkel and his wife donated the prize bags of Legos, comic books, and other goodies. Henkel hopes this contest and the foyer display he put up last month at the library will inspire more youth to become fans of Star Wars and related franchises, and to check out the library’s graphic novel collection.