Star Trek: The Fan Phenomenon. Ein Planet, genannt Erde

"Helping others is the soul of what Star Trek is about."
-Ken Waid

A surprising discovery I made was that Trek fans do a lot of charity work and community service. While this is something very common to American clubs of all types, it is something people don’t usually associate with science fiction fans who have the reputation of being out of touch with the world.
Charity work among Trek fans has something of a tradition, going right back to the times of The Original Series. Back when the studio was more open to fans, it gave away masses of unwanted Trek film clips. Collecting these soon became a popular hobby among fans. Some fans, though, collected with another goal in mind: charities. They would sell them and donate the money to a charity they felt was important to support, without taking any profit for themselves.

It is a tradition that has lasted - in America, at least. All the American clubs I encountered did community work to some extent. Interestingly, clubs that were more involved in this were also the ones that were the most helpful in giving me info on Trek fandom. On the other hand, no European clubs did any charity work at all. When I brought up this topic while talking to some Swiss fans, they seemed surprised at the idea of including charity work in their activities.
Some American clubs have made quite a name for themselves, not just in fandom, but also in their communities, by doing charity work and community service. Larry Barnes (club unknown) wrote: “When Trek was really popular, and The Next Generation was still on the air, our club was known in the community. We had a definite presence and organisations would call us to help them with their activities.”

A pamphlet introducing the USS Morning Star, a chapter of Starfleet International, says: “We are part of Starfleet, a world-wide organisation of Star Trek fans interested in lending a helping hand and in promoting a better future through community service, charity work and friendship. What holds us together is our commitment to Gene Roddenberry’s vision of a better future through tolerance, mutual respect and above all, a willingness to help.”

Starfleet International has chosen the words “let me help”, a famous line from the episode “The City on the Edge of Forever” to be their motto, and many do their best to live by this. They approached my questionnaire with this attitude, and were happy to answer as many questions as I wanted.
The club is not-for-profit and registered as a service organisation. It supports a large number of charities, and in addition, individual chapters sponsor charities they think are worthwhile.
As a whole, SFI runs what they call a “stampede”. They collect postage stamps and the money they raise goes towards various charities such as UNICEF and the Red Cross.
They also support the Ronald McDonald house, and they help provide food for Third World countries. To participate in the Overseas Coupon Project, members collect cents-off coupons from food packages and send them to American military bases in Europe, so the soldiers and their families can buy American products much cheaper on the base.
Ships that collect over $500 a month “adopt” a base, which means they send all their coupons to that base. This is quite a popular charity, with some chapters collecting over $1000 worth of coupons per month!
For 16 years, SFI has been supporting the army in another way as well: with the so-called “Operation Eagle”. Starfleet International members write letters and send gift boxes or care packages to military men serving overseas. As there are quite a few ex-military people in SFI, supporting the armed forces is important to them. Each chapter helps collect coupons or stamps for some of the above charities; some support them all. But they also work hard in their local area, helping out where they see it’s necessary.
Some examples are the USS Charleston, which has adopted a highway and is therefore responsible for keeping it litter-free. The USS Haise visits hospitals, taking along puzzles and plush Trek animals for the children. The USS Atlas provides its own scholarship fund. The USS Sol is into teaching young people how to write good science fiction. And so on...the fans are very creative!

Not every club puts the same emphasis on charity work. Some do it to the extent that their newsletters are mostly taken up with charity reports! While the previously mentioned USS Morning Star is very involved in charity work, and has a very impressive list of the charities they support, the non-SFI club USS Bounty from Canada does more Trek-related activities. Interestingly, the Morning Star is run by older people, who were with the series from the beginning, while the Bounty is composed of younger fans.

Klingon-based clubs tend to do less charity work.
Says Carol Bockelman: ”I gather that Trek clubs and community work are closely related in your experience. This connection doesn’t hold across the board. Community work is only a very small part, or no part at all, of many of the Klingon clubs.” All the Klingon clubs I encountered though did do some community work, though, such as money raising, or visiting hospitals.

For the Morning Star group, recycling and health are very important, and they do their best to promote environmental awareness. While we take recycling facilities for granted, they are not yet widely available in America. However, an article in the Morning Star’s newsletter encourages members to recycle aluminium, glass, paper, bottles, etc, and the commanding officers will even pick the things up from a member’s house and take them to a recycling centre if they can’t do it themselves!

Strangely, almost none of the clubs outside America did charity or community work. Admittedly, I received very few answers from clubs outside America and Canada, so I can’t say definitely that this is the case everywhere. However, just the fact that I got so few answers from other countries, when I wrote to just as many German clubs as American ones, says something about their readiness to help! As I said before, Swiss fans were surprised at the idea of including charity work in their activities. At Star Trek conventions, auctions of Trek goodies are held, often of original props from the series, and the proceeds go to charities.

So it can be said that Trek fans are generally a caring group of people. Wanting to make a difference is common to many Trek fan clubs. The question is, why?
Michael Dorn, who played Lt. Cdr. Worf on The Next Generation, once said in an interview:”...the true fans are the ones who believe that this [the Trek-style universe] is our future.” But I think it’s more than that. Trek fans are intelligent, aware people, and can see the problems of the world around us. They would like to see a future like that shown in Star Trek come true, and by helping out where they can, are doing their best to create it. Additionally, people who like a show that promoted helping others are bound to have a bit of that in themselves, too.

Star Trek started out as a rather radical little series that was ahead of its time in some ways. It is fitting that the fans of the show carry on, a bit ahead of the times in terms of environment awareness, tolerance, and willingness to help.
Dallas Vincon wrote that he sees Trek fans as a group who are "...working to better the planet and ourselves. [...] Yes, we may have our heads in the stars, but our feet are firmly planted on the ground.” In Starfleet International, fans are not judged by how much trivia they know (as the Trekkie cliché implies), but, according to Larry Jones, “by their results- that is, whether you spend all your time and money on Star Trek fantasy, or whether you make contributions to society in conjunction with your fandom.”

And Andrew Gossett wrote: ”I hope that 500 years from now, a benevolent society looks back and says `They’re the ones who helped realise our future”

Ein Planet, genannt Erde

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