The 2018 year came to an end with astounding success on the part of Can’t Stop The Serenity. Once again, events large and small raised money for Equality Now and other charities.
You can check out all the details here but in brief, $43,806.53 was raised in 18 events.
Thanks to all the volunteers who make this happen, and all the people who support us. You are mighty!
We are delighted to announce that we have two new members on the Global Steering Committee! Please join us in welcoming Matt Black and Cheryl Mattson!
Serving as an executive and consistency committee, the Global Steering Committee (GSC) is responsible for maintaining the high standards and reputation of CSTS, and is a repository of CSTS knowledge for the Global Team and Local Event Organizers.
We also support the Global Event Coordinator (GEC), can step in if the GEC is unable to continue in that capacity or needs additional help, and we provide a recourse for Local Event Organizers if they have issues that need additional support beyond the Global Team. The GSC is made up of members with lots of experience with CSTS at a global and local level, and who are passionate about CSTS.… Read more…
It is with sadness that we have heard that Wendy Scott has recorded her last episode of the podcast Sending A Wave.
For 11 years or more, they have supported Can’t Stop the Serenity. Organizers and Global Event Coordinators were interviewed every year. When Odile Thomas, one of the past hosts, ran CSTS events, Sending a Wave was there recording it all.
They promoted the screenings and affiliate events and urged people to get involved.
Wendy and Odile spoke openly about what they felt worked, and what didn’t with Can’t Stop the Serenity and it was obvious how much they cared.
Eleven years and a bit is a long time to run a podcast and Wendy can be very proud of what she accomplished. We will never know how many people attended a CSTS event because they heard about it on Sending a Wave, but we do know that it made a big difference.… Read more…
It’s that time again.The Can’t Stop The Serenity promotional art contest is back for 2018!
But it’s not the same old contest. This year, as you know, we have a new CSTS icon, the result of a contest in the Fall. This new icon will be part of all art going forward, starting with this year’s.
All the details you need to know can be found here but briefly (and in no particular order):
As Bob Averell and his amazing crew finish up 2017, we are beginning to look forward to 2018 and an exciting year of fun filled fandom events. For the past 12 years, Browncoats all over the world have donated tens of thousands of hours of their spare time to organise events both big and small to celebrate our fandom and to support Equality Now, and 2018 is no different. Plans are already being made in cities across the globe. Will there be an event in your local area? All it takes are a few Browncoats to put on their cunning hats and make it happen!
The Global Team are here to help and we are pleased to announce that Annie Burnaman is returning to be the Global Event Coordinator again.… Read more…
In July we announced that we had to develop a new CSTS icon since Equality Now had changed theirs. We put out the call and asked for submissions. It was going to be tough, we knew. The colours and shapes weren’t going to fit so neatly together.
As always, Browncoats came though and we had an impressive amount of artwork from which to choose.
It was hard as there were many ingenious designs. We worked with Equality Now to make sure that we respected their logo and finally picked the one that we felt made best use of the 2 icons, that of Universal’s Serenity and Equality Now’s equal sign. It is condensed and will be easy to add to the yearly images but stands well on its own.… Read more…
When we started in 2006, we got permission from Universal and from Equality Now to combine images from both to create the symbol we all recognize as the Can’t Stop The Serenity logo.
It has stood us in very good stead for 12 years now but Equality Now has changed their look and we must follow suit. After some discussion, they have given us permission to use their new logo – or part of it – the abstracted equal sign in 2 shades of Blue.
So we need a new logo using the Serenity icon and the Equality Now image.
We will be accepting submissions for the new CSTS design until Sept. 29th. You may submit up to 3 choices.
The Steering Committee will make the final decision.… Read more…
The Can’t Stop The Serenity promotional art contest is back for 2017! Do you think you’ve got what it takes to design our official promotional artwork?
In its twelve years, Can’t Stop The Serenity has raised over one million dollars for Equality Now. We can do even more good works in 2017, but only if people show up! That’s where you can come in. The annual logo is a critical tool for raising awareness about the event, building excitement, and getting people out to CSTS events around the world. It tells people that we are back for another year. And we know there are lots of creative Browncoats out there with the skills to make this happen!
THE SHINY STUFF:
The winner’s artwork will be featured prominently throughout our website and social media outlets, and on any T-shirts, and promos created for the annual CSTS season.… Read more…
With the 2016 season coming to a close, the Global Steering Committee (GSC) started the process of looking for a new Global Event Coordinator to take over from Annie Burnaman who did such a great job last year.
We’re excited to announce that Bob Averell will be taking over the reins for 2017! Bob is a member of the Pennsylvania Browncoats, Rivers and Bridges Brigade (Pittsburgh), which he helped start back in 2004. He has been involved with his local CSTS event every year, and we are very pleased that he has agreed to step forward to the global organization.
Bob tells us: “Annie said last year that CSTS is too pretty to die and it’s a testament to all those who have worked at both the local and global level over the years that we are still able to make a mark.”… Read more…
And now we’ve run out of time. The auction ends tomorrow starting around noon Pacific
if you haven’t checked it out, you owe it to yourself to do so.… Read more…
Lots of people have seen Season One of Con Man but have you seen the extras? The Con Man DVD is full of them and that particular auction lot is worth winning for it along. But it also has a poster signed by Alan Tudyk and a Spectrum poster featuring James Raaker & Cash Wayne aka Jack Moore and Wray Nerely aka Nathan Fillion & Alan Tudyk. (Are you confused yet?)
Another Con Man collection includes Con Man Trading cards and a character sheet from Spectrum as well as a signed copy of PJ Haarsma’s SoftWire
But maybe you want to stick with Firefly. In that case, may we draw your attention to the Kaylee collection? The messenger bag is sturdy and matches the overalls that Kaylee wears on the accompanying action figure.… Read more…
Browncoats are a generous bunch. And so are the companies whom make wonderful things to sell to us.
Take for instance Loot Crate who sent us the Zoe Loot Crate full of exciting things like the Zoe figure, a Serenity Journal, a mystery QBits figure and so much more.
Right at this moment it is still under $30.00. At twice that amount it would still be a steal.
We have a lot of auction items like that – currently going for much less than they are worth. Check them out.
Bid.
Tell your friends and family to bid. Make the world a better place by supporting Equality Now through our auction.
These two groups are some of our favourites in the auction. We’ve paired this year’s stunning Tshirts with cunning hats and a big comfy Firefly pillow. The twist? Two of the hats and 2 of the Tshirts are for children!
But maybe you have a little one not quite old enough. Then this baby sling is for you! Woven especially for this purpose you’ll notice it is what Kaylee might use if she had a child. Patterned with strawberries and parasols and other Kaylee type images, this baby sling comes with instructions on how to use it.
There are only 5 days left in the auction.
Go bid!… Read more…
Our huge eBay auction is now live! You can find it here.
And just take a look at what we have! 
A member of the Pittsburgh CSTS gang was at San Diego Comic Con and went to the Dark Horse signing for the new Serenity comic. He got the poster signed and told Alan, Nathan and Joss that it was for CSTS, at which point he said Joss talked to him for several minutes about the CSTS event in Pittsburgh, said how much he appreciated what we do, grabbed a copy of Serenity: Those Left Behind off a pile at the table and signed it!
And now it could be yours. This is only one of many items we have in our auction. Go look.
Bid now.… Read more…
Our big eBay auction starts on Monday but we just couldn’t wait so we’ve put one item up already! You can find it here. (http://www.ebay.com/sch/californiabrowncoats/m.html)
Georges Jeanty illustrated Serenity: Leaves on the Wind and this graphic novel collects all the issues in one place. That would be shiny enough but when he was asked to sign this for us, he went one step further and drew a picture in it. So the winner of this great title will also own an original Jeanty!
Because we put this one out early, it ends on Friday. But the rest of the auction starts on Monday and ends next Sunday. Money raised goes to support the important work done by Equality Now. We thank the California Browncoats for allowing us to once again hijack their eBay account for the CSTS auction.… Read more…
Due to changes at eBay we have to postpone our h-u-u-uge auction one week. It will now start Oct. 24 and end the 31st.
Once it goes live, we’ll post the URL but you will always be able to find it by searching for the California Browncoats who have been good enough to allow us to take over their eBay account.… Read more…
Joss Whedon’s influence reaches far. Ben Edlund wrote for Whedon on Firefly and Angel. Now he is finally bringing his own creation, The Tick, to TV. This promotional poster is clearly intended for CSTS. We feel pretty confident is asserting that no one else will have a poster remotely like this!
Clark Gregg aka Agent Phil Coulson is currently staring in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. He has signed this picture of Coulson and his beloved car Lola.
And these are just two of the many items that will be up for auction starting Monday Oct. 17. Our great thanks go to the California Browncoats who have once again allowed us to use their eBay account for our auction.
Browncoats are fans of many diverse things and our upcoming auction reflects that. This amazing collectible for instance. Who wouldn’t want a replica Thor Helmet signed not only by Chris Hemsworth but the one and only Stan Lee himself? Now that Stan is cutting down on his con appearances, it will get harder to acquire his autograph. And with the new Thor movie coming out next year, the winner of this helmet will be ready!
There is also a mystery auction item! In every Firefly LootCrate there is a QBit. Who is it? You’ll have to win it to know!
Every Fall we close out our CSTS year with a big auction but this year, we may have outdone ourselves!
We have hundreds of items from the fun collectibles to the very rare. How about the Serenity chopsticks that were available only if you had enough points on the Serenitymovie website?
Or a bracelet that says “Shiny?”
There are loads of great autographs and donations directly from some of our Big Damn Heroes. Stay tuned for date and time and be sure to share this with everyone you know. All proceeds go to support the wonderful work done by Equality Now.… Read more…
Click here to vote! Thank you to each artist who took the time to share their talent with us. We have some tough choices to make this year in choosing a logo design.
What design do you want to represent CSTS this year?
In the event of a tie, the Global Steering Committee and Global Team will choose the winning piece.
We will be posting links to the voting page via our social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, etc.)… Read more…
For years CSTS has created an intro video to be shown before showing Serenity. We know it is shown at other times of course – during affiliate events for instance. But it is just for those participating in some kind of CSTS event.
And it has always been a nice surprise for event go-ers.
Who will be on it this year?
What will be the theme?
Will it make us laugh, or (one notable year), cry?
When the event season is over, we put it up on our You Tube channel for all to see.
We would like to extend a big thanks to those Browncoats who got us the footage, and to the event cities who sent in something extra for our 10th year. And a very big thanks to Liam Merrick who once again put this together into something that looks magnificent on a big screen.… Read more…
Our thanks to all who donated and those who bid and those who won. Everything is still being tallied but we know already that a sizable amount of money will be donated to Equality Now because of your generosity.
We know that not everyone could bid, but so many people spread the word for us that we had an unprecedented number of participants.
Thank you all so much.… Read more…
If you have planned to take a look at what is available in our E-Bay auction, now is the time!
Here is the link once again. Remember, all the money raised goes to Equality Now to help women and girls around the world. And we know that when you help them, you help everyone.
At the moment, some items are still remarkably low.
The limited edition blue prints for one.
Some of the poster sets which include the poster of Serenity signed by Joss,
and the extremely rare promotional watch sent out by Fox before Firefly started.
The 2 Star Wars figures are still cheap as well.
And then there is the fun stuff. The replica props, the patches, the Serenity graphic novels, the jewellery. We’ve put together a couple of collections of the kind of items you might have been able to win at a CSTS event.… Read more…
Here is where it all is. So many great items, you just might have to bid on all of them.
Something for yourself, something for a loved one or a best friend, something to give to that someone who has everything.
But I bet they don’t have the rare Serenity Blueprints.
Or the Handmade BDH Charm Bracelet.
Take a look, make a bid. All proceeds go to help Equality Now… Read more…
Joss Whedon created many great shows, not just Firefly. Angel, a spinoff from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, was one of them.
This picture is a still from that show and features Amy Acker and the late Andy Hallett. Amy Acker has also been in Joss’s Much Ado About Nothing, Cabin in the Woods and Dollhouse. Andy Hallett of course played Lorne.
A certificate of authenticity comes with the photo, attesting that the signatures are genuine.
Another amazing item in our 10th Anniversary ebay auction starting Nov. 8th.… Read more…
