I am in the same boat, there is no one within a couple hundred miles of me that does anything with sabers. I started out by buying a grab bag saber as well, which turned out to be the older style Standard Issue metal saber with a orange/yellow blade. I would recommend getting the ultra edge blades, since the mid grade is light enough to have some flex in the swings, so you could get a blade flex whip on accident.
I have read enough on here and TCSS to feel very confident building sabers, and actually will be starting on a couple of PVC ones as soon as I am done posting this, so I would recommend studying the how to guides, build a couple to get the wiring and shaping worked out, then teach people how to make a basic PVC saber as part of your regular meetings; if nothing else, this will get interest in people wanting to make their own show sabers and can seriously reduce the cost for people who may have tighter budgets.
I don't really have much support on this, so it boils down to "if it's going to be, it's up to me" in my area, so I am contacting a local dojo to make a deal with trading a few PVC sabers for some sword form training to refresh what I learned when I was younger, then advertising in the local gaming and comic shops about the club as a free membership thing for those interested in SW in our area. If nothing else I may get a few more people interested in Jedi/Sith costuming for our local 501st and Rebel groups, but with some luck I may end up with some dedicated hobbyists to use as a building point.
Good luck!