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Arriving fashionably late to the Super Best of Tacoma Party Thursday night at the Varsity Grill, eight individuals calling themselves Captain Planet and the Planeteers made an entrance as if they were superheroes.

Apparently, they are.

Planeteer Stephanie McCallum, a bigwig at Umpqua Bank in downtown Tacoma, came clean on the group via email:

Captain Planet and the Planeteers is an animated environmentalist cartoon that ran from 1990-1992. Gaia (Aja Pound), the spirit of the Earth, is awakened from a long sleep by human activity threatening ecosystems, taking place across the globe. Realizing that the damage is extensive, Gaia sends five magic rings, each with the power to control an element of nature and one controlling an extra element, heart, to five chosen youths across the globe. These five are dubbed the Planeteers (Stephanie McCallum, Sopang Men, Andie Farias, Alicia Carter and Kate Burrows) and given the task of defending the Earth in the case of the greatest of disasters and making effort to keep others from happening. Gaia uses her "Planet Vision" to discover where the most devastating destruction is occurring and sends the Planeteers to help solve the problem. The Planeteers use transportation (usually a flying machine called a Geo-Cruiser) based on solar power to avoid causing pollution themselves. In situations that the Planeteers cannot resolve alone, they can combine their powers to summon Captain Planet (Aaron Bryan), a magical entity who possesses all of their powers magnified. Dr. Blight (Morgan Strom) is mad scientist Eco-Villain who represents the dangers of uncontrolled technology and unethical scientific experimentation.

OK, sounds good.