BANGOR (NEWS CENTER Maine) -- Patients in the pediatric unit at Eastern Maine Medical Center (EMMC) who are fans of the Star Wars movies got a pleasant surprise.
The movie release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi gave Paul Bussiere an excuse to take his R2-D2 to EMMC to visit patients. He's been surprising kids there since his first visit in 2009. He knows first hand the difference it can make for a kid going through a tough time since making hospital visits to his own God son who passed away from brain cancer.
"An honor to be invited and asked to come over and come do a visit," said Bussiere. "The impression it makes is you see it first hand. You see the kids face go whoa. I didn't expect to see this today."
It doesn't happen during every visit, but when Bussiere's R2-D2 needs to be accompanied by a storm trooper it's not hard to find one. Josh Sanders does IT work for the hospital and just so happens to have a costume that was designed from 3D scans of an original 1977 storm trooper armor. In person, it's just enough to help sick kids forget that they're sick.
"For a moment they aren't in the hospital," said Sanders. "They aren't sick, they are just seeing this person from the movies that they love."
One patient who was excited to meet the two Star Wars characters was Elias Morin. He was all smiles after meeting and hugging both R2-D2 and the storm trooper.
"I was really excited," said Morin with a smile. "That was the awesomest thing ever."