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As “Star Wars” fans worldwide packed theaters May 4 to catch “The Phantom Menace” and celebrate the franchise’s unofficial holiday, people in Vermont’s cannabis business community dressed in costumes and bid for memorabilia with a good cause in mind.
They were turning out for “May The Fourth Be With You,” an event hosted in a lofty raftered barn in Essex by X-Tract, a St. Albans cannabis product business.
The event included music from DJ Fly Ty, a photobooth, costumes and an auction to raise money to help Ruby Lanza — a 9-year-old diagnosed last year with rhabdomyosarcoma, a muscle tissue cancer.
The festive fundraiser was inspired by Paul Rose, a huge “Star Wars” fan and one of X-Tract’s founders, who died from throat cancer in 2019. “This is a party to honor him,” said daughter Emma Rose, creative director at the company and owner of Rosie’s Confections in downtown Winooski.
Although auctioneered by a faux Emperor Palpatine, the fundraiser brought few dark side tidings. Instead it yielded almost $2,380 through bids on “Star Wars”–themed items like a Darth Vader hat, Chewbacca mug and lightsaber-inspired dab tools and one-hitter pipes. Between 100 and 125 people attended the four-hour event.
“I was really pleased with the turnout,” Rose said. “This is what cannabis and our industry is all about.”
The Lanza family has lost income in the wake of Ruby’s cancer diagnosis, said Adrian Lanza, her father. But efforts like the auction May 4 and the $52,806 raised in a GoFundMe organized by Ruby’s mother, Elise Martin, “are instrumental in doing things like keeping the family flowing and trying to make Ruby happy at this time,” he said.
Those donations have been helpful in paying for necessities like groceries and frequent travel for the medical trial Ruby is participating in at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis. But smaller gestures, like food brought to the house and gifts or cards coming from Ruby’s school, go a long way as well, Lanza said.
“There’s been a large amount of community support, and that’s really touching, and I think that has helped keep us glued together to some degree,” he said.
Rallying the community was what Paul Rose was all about, his daughter said. Now, she’s trying to follow in his footsteps.
“I think events like this build community, and there’s a stark lack of fun events in Vermont and in the cannabis community in general,” she said.
“That’s where my passion and drive to create these events comes from.”
Wearing what he jokingly called a “fat, drunk Luke Skywalker” costume, Rob Connolly, part owner of event sponsor Tir Na Nog Edibles in Waitsfield, said he and his business partners feel it’s crucial to support events like this. “Not only does it raise money, but it helps destigmatize cannabis users as dirty, lazy stoners,” he said.
Because of laws that limit how businesses like his can advertise, he said, these kinds of events are a great way to get the word out while giving back at the same time.
Connolly said the state’s cannabis industry is “a great group of people that are passionate about what they do and bringing people in,” in a scene he says has remained vibrant while other cannabis movements across the country have stagnated. His company was one of eight sponsors.
Attendee Marisa Machanic of Burlington said she hopes more events like the May 4 party will spur more opportunities to bring cannabis into the state’s social scene.
The Vermont cannabis industry and community is a “very tight-knit group of fun, honest people that are collaborative and supportive of each other,” she said.
That doesn’t mean there isn’t more work to be done, said Rose. She believes fewer squabbles between local businesses will be critical if cannabis is legalized nationally and large companies enter the state market with cheaper prices.
“If we don’t grow and have the ability to compete with those prices and have that stellar Vermont reputation, like fine cheese or craft beer, we’re not going to be able to succeed,” she said. “I really believe that working together is the way for us to do that, and that’s an underlying mission for all my events that I plan.”
Like her father before her, she believes you don’t have to look to a galaxy far, far away to find life-changing powers — cannabis is right here on Earth. “He was a huge believer in this plant,” she said, “and the potential that it has to heal people and improve lives.”