It was a Day of Discovery for children with sensory differences and their families at The Florida Aquarium on Saturday (April 7th)–and Chadd & I were there for the wonderful event, in which The Florida Aquarium opens their doors a couple of hours early exclusively for these amazing young guests and their families.

The special autism-friendly Day of Discovery event, in partnership with the Center for Autism & Related Disabilities, is a fun morning for families to visit to see all the aquarium has to offer. Plus, the kids also got to meet Tampa Bay Buccaneers players #76 Donovan Smith and #9 Bryan Anger, as well as characters from the Star Wars Universe. The Tampa Bay Squad of the 501st Legion and the Rebel Legion, both official Lucas Film Star Wars costuming groups, met with young fans and their families.

Chadd and I love attending events like Day of Discovery, changing out our radio morning show hats for our Star Wars helmets. We have been members of both the 501st Legion & Rebel Legion for years and this event is very special for both of us because we love seeing all of the excitement and smiles on the kids’ and families’ faces. And, it was kinda cool to see a Tampa Bay Buccaneer try on my Tie Pilot helmet.

Chadd absolutely loves this event because it’s so important to us to give back to the community and to be able to share special moments like this with some amazing kids and their families. They are always so curious and appreciative of the experience.

The 501st Legion and Rebel Legion are amazing groups to be part of. There are so many people from so many different walks of life donating their time to extraordinary events like Day of Discovery, like the head of our Tampa Bay Squad Mark Johnson is a school teacher who spends his free time suiting up as a Star Wars character to make other people happy.

Check out some of the pics from the event below.