Each fall, Upper Chesapeake Book Arts (UCBA) sponsors a book exchange for those who want to contribute. Each contributor brings a book to trade with another member. The rules are that the book must contain content (image or text) and fit in a 5” x 8” lunch bag. Each person marks their bag with a secret indicator so they don’t get their own bag. Numbers are drawn to establish order, and everyone, in turn, picks a bag.
This is the flag book Ray did for the 2025 exchange.
Ray’s son Tray is a member of The 501st Legion, a Star Wars costuming group with some 14,000 members. Since 1997, the 501st Legion has been an international costuming organization dedicated to celebrating Star Wars through the creation and use of quality costumes that portray the villainous, morally ambiguous, or non-partisan characters from the Star Wars universe. Tray has several costumes, including the standard Stormtrooper, a Snowy Stormtrooper, and a Truscan Warrior in his closet. They regularly contribute to movie openings, parades, and other generous offerings of their time and effort.
For the past several years, they have been producing a series of 501 trading cards, and after a boatload of work, they have reached the final 50 cards. Tray has always been the distributor of these cards to 501 members scattered across the globe, and is in charge of getting the cards printed (ZooPrinting.com, if you are interested). I thought it would be a good subject for a flag book.
Below is another interesting view of the book.
