Episode VII: The alliance strikes back
You can call them freaks or geeks, but they'll correct you with "friends." The Hoosier Alliance, a local Bloomington Star Wars club, is taking "the force" and adding a bit of Indiana charm. "People can see us as freaks," said Eric Stuckey, Alliance president. "But I'm 35 and I've never had as good of friends as I've found in this club." An official chapter of theforce.net, the club welcomes people from all walks of life and all ages, a good number of them IU students. Junior Cole Horton and senior Amelia Hilliker, make up two of the group's 15 regular members, and despite some significant age differences with some of the others, they say the atmosphere alone is enough to make you feel right at home. And you don't need to be obsessed to join. "Star Wars is an interest, a hobby," Horton said. "It's not my entire life." But it is five months' rent. If you ever see a stormtrooper watching IU basketball like a true Hoosier, it could be Horton. The avid fan dropped a sum so large on his stormtrooper ensemble that he could only describe it in months of spent rent. "They asked me to run with the flags once," he said with a smile. "But it would have been pretty embarrassing to fall in front of an entire crowd. I can't see a thing in that suit." "He's the pimp of the club," Hilliker jokes. "It's got to be that uniform."
