Celebrity guests meet young cancer patients ahead of 605 Pop Culture Con in Sioux Falls

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – The 3rd annual Voices Against Cancer 605 Pop Culture Con kicks off this weekend at the Sioux Falls Convention Center and Sioux Falls Arena. Stars will take on Sioux Falls to raise money for cancer research. Voices Against Cancer is a non-profit organization whose mission is to assist families right in our area by bringing in celebrity guests, but in the process, the celebrity guests get to make some special connections with local patients at a private event on Friday night.

It’s a lot of hard work to coordinate bringing a collection of stars to Sioux Falls for a weekend, including Rosario Dawson who played Ahsoka Tano in “The Mandalorian”, “The Book of Boba Fett”, and “Ahsoka” On Disney+ and Antony Starr who plays Homelander in Amazon Prime Video’s original series “The Boys”. On top of that, global tech outages added to the work of volunteers.

“We’ve had a lot of difficulties getting people on planes, getting computers taken care of, lots of reservations needing to be updated, revamped and remade,” said Karin Borgmann, a volunteer with Voices Against Cancer.

Authors, artists and TV and movie stars play a big role in the mission of Voices Against Cancer.

“All of the funds that are raised from the signing of the autographs and the photography and the different forums all goes right back to our families here in town,” Borgmann explained.

Celebrity guests enjoy experiences like this because they can see the impact the projects they’re part of have on fans across the country. Marc Thompson, known for voicing multiple Pokemon characters including Gengar, and the voice of Sonic the Hedgehog, Roger Craig Smith, both have experienced these types of events before.

“We were joking around, like sometimes with the voiceover people it’s a little like, ‘Who are you?’ So I try to help them out and wear something that might be [of the show],” Thompson said with a chuckle, pointing to his Gengar-themed shirt. “It’s fun though because sometimes if there’s a kid that’s familiar with the show, if I do the voice you see the recognition on their face.”

“I focus on my job, but I’m reminded when I get a chance to come to conventions and that kind of thing that you see what people who experience your character or the game or the animation, they’re the ones that experience it from a very different way that we do as actors,” Smith described. “To get to celebrate that moment of seeing what a character like Sonic the Hedgehog or you name it means to somebody is the best part of the job.”

The celebrity guests take pride in doing something good with their platform and to them, the real stars are the kids who will benefit directly from their appearances this weekend.

“I have gotten to travel to a lot of great places and meet a lot of great people, but to know that this is directly helping people in need is incredibly powerful,” Thompson said.

“It’s such an incredible event for such an important cause. We got a chance to get over to the hospital today and meet some of the kids, meet some of the staff and it’s just like, if you’re going to do a convention, to do it for these reasons is so great,” said Smith.

The connections that the stars make with each kid is special each year. Emily Swallow, actress from “The Mandalorian” has been the ambassador for the 605 Pop Culture Con since the first year, stayed in contact with some of the connections she made and sadly one of the children she grew close to passed away. Upon making it back to Sioux Falls, she visited where that child was laid to rest.

“A lot of the interactions are really personal,” Borgmann stated. “I know in years past all of the stars really took pride in taking a lot of personal time with the families and with the children and making sure that they really get to meet them and really get to know them and understand what’s going on in their lives.”

Other guests include Harry Belden, Ian Cardoni and Spencer Grammer, the voices of the characters Morty Smith, Rick Sanchez and Casey Cartwright from the animated series “Rick and Morty”, Karen Fukuhara who played Kimiko in “The Boys” and Lars Mikkelsen who played Viktor Petrov in “House of Cards“ and Grand Admiral Thrawn in “Star Wars: Rebels” and “Ahsoka”. You can find a full list of the celebrity guests here. For a full schedule of the weekend, click this link.

Copyright 2024 Dakota News Now. All rights reserved.