It’s hard to believe Russ Haslage – president of the nonprofit organization
International Federation of Trekkers Inc. – wasn’t into the original “Star Trek” series when it aired.
“I wasn’t interested,” Haslage says. “I was too busy playing baseball – I could go 18 hours a day playing ball nonstop, so in the ’60s, I didn’t watch ‘Star Trek.’”
We’re talking about a man who collaborated with the late creator of ‘Star Trek,” Gene Roddenberry, to launch the aforementioned charitable entity;
worked to create “Star Trek: Excelsior,” a TV-series spin-off of the 1991 movie “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country” that would have starred his buddy and original cast member George Takei, as then-Captain Hikaru Sulu; and is about to see
Federation Headquarters – the organization’s nerve center and a seller of “Trek” merchandise and more – beam from its tiny home in Huron to a space-ious spot in Sandusky mall.
Haslage’s “Trek” love began in 1979 with the release of “Star Trek: The Motion Picture,” which brought William Shatner’s Captain James T. Kirk, Leonard Nimoy’s Mr. Spock, Takei’s Sulu and the rest of the series’ main cast to the big screen. He caught it on a whim, he says, back when he was managing a Taco Bell on U.S. 250 where Andy’s China Dragon Express now resides, but a weekly matinee viewing quickly became a habit.
“I mean, I liked it so much,” says Haslage, who grew up in Lorain and now lives in Huron. “I went over to the movie theater at (Sandusky Mall) 13 Wednesdays in a row and paid two bucks.”
The way “Trek” brought together a diverse group of heroes captivated him, and after seeing fan favorite “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” in 1982, he sought out a fan club to join. What he found, he says, is none that existed “were interested in what called me into ‘Star Trek,’ which was the whole human side of the equation.”
He started thinking about starting his own, but he wanted to talk over his thoughts with the father of “Trek.” As crazy it sounds now, he called Paramount Pictures and was put through to Roddenberry’s assistant, who told Haslage the big man wasn’t in but that she’d take a message.
“A week and a half later,” Haslage recalls, “I get a phone call, and it was, ‘This is Gene Roddenberry.’ And so I stammered and told him the whole story.”
This first phone conversation led to almost a decade of them, culminating in the pair establishing the Federation on June 1, 1984, Haslage says. Now an entity “with chapters all over the world that focuses on helping people,” he says, it began as a network of home offices – challenging given this was pre-Internet.
“We didn’t have a store until I bought Starbase Columbus in 2015,” says Haslage, who acquired the Westerville store from a longtime Federation member.
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Huron resident Russ Haslage is the president of the nonprofit organization International Federation of Trekkers Inc., an organization he started nearly 40 years ago with "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry.In 2020, he moved what is now Federation Headquarters to Huron, selling merchandise to help cover the organization’s expenses.
“Nobody gets paid,” he says. “We’re all volunteers, but, you know, there are bills with anything you do.”
Of course,
donations fund much of the various chapters’ efforts, with Haslage promising 100 percent of a gift goes to
a humanitarian endeavor, with donors having some say. Recently, a fund was started for those affected by the wildfires in Maui.
“The chapters around the world choose what they’re interested in,” he says. “The chapters in California are mainly focused on the wildfires in California. The chapter in New Orleans is pretty much always entrenched in hurricanes and tropical storms.”
However, the Federation also seeks to help with individual cases of need, Haslage citing a local effort to acquire a hand-pedal bike for an area man who years earlier had lost the use of his legs and was entirely dependent on others to take him places.
“All of the chapters do that,” he says. “If someone were to contact any of our chapters and say, ‘I need help,’ we’re not going to say ‘No, that’s not what we’re interested in.
“We turn no one down. We do our best to take care of people.”
Early on in the pandemic, the Huron store served as a spot for a few students without home internet to participate in remote schooling, he says.
As for that store, it simply was too small – for instance, the 2,500-square-foot place wasn’t an ideal spot for the 13-and-a-half-foot replica of the Starship Enterprise the Federation acquired from “Star Trek: The Exhibition” to say nothing of all the merch it had in storage – so he and the Federation jumped at an enticing offer to take over a combined space once home to Express and an old location of Bath & Body Works.
A “very soft opening” is planned for the new location, in Suite 220, on Sept. 30.
“There’ll be a whole lot more to go, and we’re hoping for a grand opening in November – like maybe Black Friday weekend or something,” he says.
Haslage says that grand opening will come after the complete bridge, Borg regeneration pod, and a few other areas "ready to show off." They also plan to bring in Paul Forest, the famous Leonard Nimoy look-alike, to greet fans and take photos.
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Paul Forest, the famous Leonard Nimoy look-alike, will greet fans and take photos on opening day.Along with “Star Trek” and other types of science-fiction-related merchandise (yes, gasp, including “Star Wars”), some of it from donated collections, the store will be home to the Federation’s office. Oh, and they’re building a replica of the original Enterprise bridge – from the 1960s show Haslage wasn’t watching at the time it aired – to go with the captain’s chair already in their possession.
“What we are telling people that really are anxious to see the place: ‘It won’t be done, but it’ll be cool when you get here, and every time you come back, something will be new.’”
Of course, Haslage wonders what Roddenberry would think about everything the Federation has done since his death in 1991.
“Very often, I would look at what we’re doing today and say, ‘I hope he’s proud of what we’ve become,” Haslage says. “When we were working on all this before we opened officially, his idea was that one day the Federation would grow to be the same stature as the Salvation Army or the Peace Corps. And I’m like, ‘Wow, those are some pretty big goals.’
“And you know, we’re not quite there yet. It’s been 40 years, but it’s going to take us some (more time). But we’re getting there.”