November 13, 2004. Just an ordinary day, but not for Albin Johnson, founder of the 501st Legion. The unit is an imaginary division of the Star Wars Empire's armies, whose mission is to raise funds through charitable work.

On that particular day, his youngest daughter Katie is diagnosed with a brain tumor, probably lethal. The little girl's live has barely just begun.

As the disease progresses, word spreads out and more than 4,000 members of the 501st Legion, as well as Star Wars fans, take action around the world and they dedicate themselves to inject some hope into a lost cause.

On another ordinary day, Johnson goes to church and notices that the windows are in the shape of his daughter Katie's favorite R2 unit. Suddenly an idea comes to him: why not build an R2 to watch over Katie while she sleeps, just as R2-D2 watched over Padme in Episode II of the film saga?


As idea soon took shape and Allie, Albin's eldest daughter, suggested that the robot's name could be R2-KT, the last two letters being an onomatopoeia that evokes the name of her sick sister, and that its color should change from the classic blue to pink, a shade that was very much to the little girl's liking.

A race against time began. In April 2005, Albin meets Jerry Greene, president and founder of the R2 Builders Club, a group that, upon hearing the little girl's story, immediately decides to focus on building a fully operational android. Additionally, they start organizing a major campaign to collect the necessary robot parts. In the meantime, they come to realize that Katie's cancer is irreversible and progressing relentlessly. One of the builders selflessly modifies parts of his own R2 and turns it pink so that he can give it to the girl while the final one is being completed. She hugs the robot in an image that is now world famous.