WonderCon 2005

	Video from the Serenity panel at Wondercon.

WonderCon 2005 was the first event that the SF Browncoats attended as a group. It started with a meeting room, then a fan table. And when BenBella Books (our beloved patron, publisher extraordinaire, and general source for all manner of Whedonistic literature) offered to donate a few books "in case we wanted to have a prize giveaway," well, that was the spark for the powder keg of WonderCon 2005.

Plans for WonderCon came together around the same time the tsunami crushed the Asian shores, so we chose the Red Cross Tsunami Relief Effort as the beneficiary of our charity fundraiser. Letters were sent out to the Big Damn Heroes, asking for assistance. And shockingly enough, replies to these letters were received... and then prize donations! Then a legion of selfless volunteers stepped forward to help man the table, make flyers, and keep things moving. It went from nothing to one of the biggest Browncoat events ever, powered entirely by BDH/Browncoat generosity.

The results were incredible. We raised over $2,000 to benefit the Red Cross Tsunami Relief Effort. The fan table was jam packed almost the entire time. We hosted the busiest fan room at the whole gorram con, sold a variety of fan-made merchandise, handed out flyers, and distributed the very first official Serenity swag (courtesy of the good folks at Universal). We introduced hundreds of newbies to the Firefly-verse, and had a little post-con shindig which was a BLAST (with quite a few out-of-state Browncoats in attendance).

Oh, and did I mention that JOSS VISITED OUR TABLE! And, having not yet gotten his fill of Browncoat company, he and John Cassaday came to our meeting room, where Joss himself pulled the winning names for our charity prize drawing. Is it any wonder that we love our Big Damn Heroes so?

WonderCon was our first run - our guinea pig event, if you will. Now we have some experience under our belt, and a well-knit group of organizers, a growing network of diversely talented Browncoats, and an event TEN TIMES BIGGER to plan for. If you think WonderCon was something, just wait 'til you see what we have in store for you at ComicCon!