It Ain’t All Buttons and Charts
Our 21st annual “Can’t Stop the Serenity” charity shindig on August 30 at the Parkway Theater delivered everything folk have come to expect from a CSTS screening in the Steel City. We had games, we had raffles, we had prizes aplenty, and we had a showing of the Big Damn Movie on a big screen in a genuine movie theater.
What we didn’t have is the attendance we’ve grown accustomed to. Only half as many people walked through the door this year as did last year, and as you might suspect, diminished attendance translated into diminished donations for this year’s chosen charities.
After expenses, our 2026 shindig raised a total of $295.71, which will be split as evenly as we’re able between The Stuttering Foundation (in memory of the late Nicholas Brendon, who almost played Malcolm Reynolds) and K9s For Warriors. And yes, that is the lowest donation total a CSTS screening of “Serenity” in this town has ever brought in.
For me personally, it means I now have the unique distinction of having been the cap’n for the most successful shindig in CSTS Pittsburgh’s history (in 2013, thanks in no small part to a sizeable donation from a local businessperson who asked to remain anonymous) as well as its least successful. It’s a humbling reminder that you can never just engage the autopilot and rest assured that you’ve got everything down to a science, because as Mal Reynolds says at the end of the movie that is the centerpiece of our events, “It ain’t all buttons and charts…”
For the past week, I’ve been mulling over the factors that contributed to this year’s decline from what was such a spectacular shindig a year ago. Was it because we held the event so late in the season? Was it because we announced the event and put tickets on sale relatively late? Was it because folk didn’t connect with our chosen charities? Or was it simply because the inflation that is making things like gas, utilities and groceries more expensive has left folk with less coin available for events like ours? I suspect the truth is probably a combination of all those things, but I’m not sure. What do you think? If you were at the event, send me a wave and let me know your opinion, and if you weren’t at this year’s event but have attended our CSTS shindigs in the past, I’d appreciate it if you’d send me a wave and let me know why you decided not to attend this year. Either way you can ping me at capn@theriversandbridgesbrigade.com.
One thing I do know is that it wasn’t because of our venue. The Parkway Theater has the perfect size and ambiance for an event like ours, and we’ve never had a host venue that offered so many options in the way of food and beverages (with and without alcohol) and comfortable space to mingle as well as a true cinematic experience. I, for one, would be perfectly satisfied if CSTS Pittsburgh were held at the Parkway for many years to come.
It also surely wasn’t any fault of our crew, who volunteered hours of their time again this year to make sure the games and raffles went off without a hitch, and in some cases donated prizes for them as well. Special thanks go to Brian Diederich, who redesigned and rebuilt our “Fanty and Mingo’s Dodgy Dice” game for this year, and Randy Tobias, who spent an entire evening assisting me with the allocation of prizes to the individual games and putting together the raffle bags. Thanks also to Julia Angotti, Bob Averell, William Pace, Ed Sauerland, Kelly Tobias, Michael Tobias and Valerie Tobias, who put in the work at the games and the admission/raffle table.
In the “Firefly” episode “Out of Gas,” Mal says, “So now instead of focusing on what we don’t got— time to talk about what it is we do.” I think that’s a shiny idea, because it’s those things that are the reason why we’ll be back next year and beyond.
One thing we definitely got is a very dedicated core of Pittsburgh-area Browncoats who show up every year to support CSTS Pittsburgh. This year’s guest list had a lot of familiar names on it, and a bunch of familiar faces made up the majority of those in the crowd. I want those Browncoats to know that we see you, and we appreciate you. You are the reason we have been able to hold a CSTS screening in this town every year since it all started back in 2006, and it’s your love that keeps us in the air.
Another thing we got is sponsors, without whom we just wouldn’t be able to keep flyin’ in today’s ‘verse. We cannot possibly express enough thanks to our oldest sponsor, Remixing History, who until recently was called Geek Frontiers and, way back when on Earth-That-Was, used to be known as Geek Pittsburgh. They cover the fee for the license to screen “Serenity” every year— and believe me when I say that’s not nothin’. We also owe a huge debt to the folk at Jump Cut Theater, who handle our online ticket sales and donations every year, covering both the costs and the operation of the ticket page itself.
One thing you might be surprised to learn we got this year is a significant portion of donations from Browncoats who do not live in the Pittsburgh area or even in our fine commonwealth, but who just wanted to support our event because it’s one of the few that are still out there. We are all manner of grateful to them, and we’d love to be able to return the favor someday.
Before I sign off, I’d like to recognize our winners from this year’s shindig. The winners of our raffle bags were Al Chernov, Libby Zellers and Rebecca Carlson. The winners of challenge coins at River’s Reaver Axe Throw were Al Chernov, Ethan Divine, Alysse Littleberry and Michelle Armstrong. The winners of “Serenity” trade paperbacks/graphic novels at Shepherd Book’s Southdown Abbey Trivia were Shelagh Collins, Ethan Divine and Alysse Littleberry. Ethan Divine won the door prize, and Shelagh Collins was the winner of the custom patch set donated by William Pace. There were no first-time viewers this year, so that DVD copy of the movie went back into our prize inventory.
And with that, we’re closing the books on Can’t Stop the Serenity Pittsburgh 2026. CSTS will return to the Steel City next year. You can count on that. And when it does, it’ll likely be as part of a larger shindig that will celebrate the silver anniversary of “Firefly” in conjunction with the Browncoat Ball. So you better get ready for a Browncoat celebration in Pittsburgh the likes of which you’ve not known!
Until next time… keep flyin’.
-Chris