My daughter likes to add buttons, charms and patches to her backpack throughout the school year to personalize and make it her own unique thing. One of the neat things we've discovered to add to it are Star Wars inspired patches of a little pink droid called R2-KT that come out around holidays and special events meant to keep a little girl's memory alive and support various charities. The most recent patch features artwork by Dave Lieu illustrating R2-KT wearing bunny ears and all proceeds support Easter Seals. Each patch is $7.00 and includes free shipping. You can order patches and pay for them via paypal to r2kt@r2kt.com
There is a special story behind R2-KT.
In 2005 a little girl named Katie was diagnosed with terminal
brain cancer. Katie loved Star Wars (like her father Ablin - the founder
of the 501st Legion Star Wars fan club) and loved the color pink. When her
health declined to the point she couldn't get out of bed, she said she
wished she had a droid to watch over her like R2-D2 watched over a
sleeping Padme in the Star Wars movie Attack of the Clones. Word
of Katie's illness spread throughout the Star Wars fan community and
another club of fans that makes authentic recreations of droids from the
Star Wars movies called The R2 Builders knew this was a job for them,
and in mere
months they constructed a custom R2 unit all painted in pink and dubbed it R2-KT. It rolled, it
blinked, it even talked: Katie had a droid to
watch over her! And she kept KT by her bedside through her final days.
Katie passed away peacefully in her sleep on August 9, 2005.
Katie's legacy lives on in her pink companion. R2-KT now tours
the world, spreading the joy to Star Wars fans and a message of hope for
kids who suffer childhood illnesses. R2-KT attends fan conventions,
visits sick children in hospitals, appears in parades, inspires young
girls that Star Wars has a place for them, and helps raise funds for a
wide range of charities. In 2007 Hasbro produced an R2-KT action figure,
which raised $100,000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. In 2008 Dave
Filoni of Lucasfilm featured the droid in a cameo role in the Clone Wars
animated feature film, making her a canon member of the Star Wars
universe! In 2013 KT appeared in the Star Wars Weekends parade in Disney
World, then traveled to be a guest of honor at Celebration Europe II in
Germany. R2-KT has become a symbol of everything Star Wars fandom has
come to represent: spreading the magic of hope.
For more information about R2-KT visit www.r2kt.com
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