Lots and lots

Well our Relay For Life of Second Life Kick Off weekend started with a bang!

In under 34 hours these Relay fanatics, which includes yours truly, beat our 2nd season total of $41,000 and is currently at $47,700. Impressed and in awe of the passion you bring to Relay.

The Kick Off ceremonies on Saturday were simply inspiring and very touching. From the presentation of our history and the people that launched this chapter of Relay For Life of Second Life and how from our meager begins right up to our recent efforts. I was, like most, blown away with an OMG moment, when told that in 2011, Relay For Life of Second Life ranked 51st of all the Relay For Life under the Relay For Life banner. 

Without spilling the beans, our Pippa Rexden to up the mic, and to say we were moved, would be a grossly understatement of epic proportions. The reason I don't wish to "spill the beans" is we have a video in post production as I write covering our Kick Off Ceremonies, and I would like you to really hear it in own her words.

After our American Cancer Society liaison, Stingray9798 Raymaker read off the list of teams for the Parade of Teams, marking the opening of the 2012 season, everyone launched into parties and team events planned to later that day, or dove into the Fashion For Life - Fashion Faire SIMs.

After a few hours of exploring the Fashion For Life SIMs I found myself on the DreamSeeker Tienpo, Entertainment SIM, listening to the sounds of the one and only Grammy-nominated musician David Arkenstone, and yes the real live David Arkenstone.

 

From here I launched into visiting all the team events I could, and on Saturday were a bunch.  After running into MamaP Beerbaum, Chair of RFLofSL, and Co-Chairs Dwen Dooley and Nikki Mathieson several times, I made notes to use their Limo service next year. To be honest, I lost count how name parties there were going on and how many I manage to visit, but it many and energetic. 

Even saw the "Hair" piece of RFLofSL fame, and I have to saw, it is impressive in person. 

By the end of the day, I found myself back where it all started, back on the kick off build, and to my delight, there was still one party going on strong, so I joined in. Checking my friend list, I noticed Pippa was still on, so I called her up and invited her over to the party. Pippa was the leader builder for the kick off build and if there someone that should know that a party was still going on at the kick off, she and her team, was at the top of my list.

Truly was a beautiful day. And like all Relay, we were excited beyond belief to get going. Cancer fears the walker, and there are 100,000s of people, from all corners of this world and in cyber space too, whose only goal to find a cure and put the boots to cancer, once and for all. For a day that the words "You have cancer" will be followed up with the words "No Worries, we can cure that now", so no one have to lose people that are dear to us all from this thing called cancer. 

I truly believe that day is coming.

Bain

Relay Rap

Trader1 Whiplash of T1Radio announced yesterday of a new program called Relay Rap and I had to find out more.

Trader1 will be featuring a half hour talk show about Relay, for Relay, for Relay'ers and the greater Relay World that is Relay For Life of Second Life.

Relay Rap will debut on Wednesday March 14th at 7pm with a 30 minute talk show, featuring three regular segments: Relay Forum, Mission Minutes and Team Time.

Relay Forum featuring general news and updates, fund raising tips and other information from your committee

Mission Minutes will focus on how the American Cancer Society uses the funds raised by Relay For Life to support programs for Survivors and Caregivers, to help all of Fight Back with health care initiatives and advocacy and of course to find better treatments, underwrite research and lead us closer to a cure.

Team Time will be all about YOU and our Relay World. Team Time will focus on teams and relay'ers, how and why they relay, their events and fundraising activities. Team Time will feature live interviews and reports from Relay World.

If anyone wishes to become a Relay Rap Reporter, or to have their team or team members featured on Relay Rap please contact Trader1 Whiplash by email: trader@t1radio.com

You can follow T1Radio with the following:
http://t1radio.serverroom.us:8242
www.t1radio.com
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Arinultra%20Cay/198/42/27

Bain

Hot off the Presses

Relay For Life of Second Life, Kick Off Celebration on March 10, 2012

 

The Relay For Life of Second Life Kick Off Celebration is on March 10, 2012.  The sims are open from 8 AM-11 PM and events run throughout the day, including the Ceremony at 10 AM and a hunt from Noon-11 PM.  The regions will come online by Thursday, so check with your team captain or the notices in the Relay For Life Volunteers group.

This year, the Relay For Life of Second Life theme is a Time For A Cure. We can all say that and mean it and feel it, but the reason why it’s so appropriate is because science is finally catching up with the mysteries of what cancer is and why we have it.  They understand so much of what happens when cells mutate and so we really can sense that in the future; we hope not too far in the future, that a cure for cancer really is possible.

As the veils of mystery of what causes cancer lift and the cry from cancer patients and their loved ones increases for the cure, so it is that we need to raise more money so that the American Cancer Society can increase funding to doctors, scientists and researchers to help them to help us.

Raising funds, raising awareness and supporting one another is something we do really well on Second Life.  We can and do make a difference.  Relay For Life of Second Life raised over $375,000 last year and in total since Relay For Life of Second Life started in 2004 we have raised an amazing $1.2 million dollars.

We meet this year for our Kick Off celebration to come together at the beginning of the 2012 fundraising campaigns and to celebrate what we’ve already done and to renew our pledge to raise even more money to fight against cancer.

While we work at raising funds over the next 4 months, one thing we also do really well on  Second Life is have fun!

Every year we try to make the Kick Off celebration something special and this year is no exception. We hope that you really do enjoy the day and the environment that we have created for you.  This year we are offering all of the teams the chance to kick off their fundraising campaigns by having a booth for 24 hours. Whether you have one item you want to introduce to everyone and start to sell or if you just want to proudly announce your team to the world, please let us know and grab a token from APinkSwan or Pippa Rexen.

 RFL Cure - Remembering Our Friends Memorial Angels, photo by IshtarAngel Micheline

The Kick Off is just the beginning of a series of events to raise money for cancer research in 2012, including:

• March 10-22, 2012 -- Fashion for Life
• March 31-April 1, 2012 -- Mardi Gras & Street Faire (Teams R Us Event)
• May 4-5, 2012 -- May Day Celebration (Teams R Us Event)
• May 12-13, 2012 -- Halfway There Fair
• May 12-20, 2012 -- Paint SL Purple
• May 19-28, 2012 -- Home & Garden Expo (includes Teams R Us @ the Expo)
• June 3, 2012 -- National Cancer Survivors Day
• June 22-24, 2012 -- Back to the 50s Weekend (Teams R US)
• July 14-15, 2012 -- RELAY WEEKEND!

Some of you will be new to Relay For Life of Second Life, some of you will have done this many times before and some of you will have decided to form your own team this year to do your fundraising. Second Life is a huge international community and we have so many nationalities here with us in the Relay For Life of Second Life community.  So, wherever you come from and whatever your past experience is with Relay For Life, we welcome you and are here to support you because we are one large team of Relay For Life of Second Life.

Another drink of Relay

Yesterday MarkTwain White unveiled his latest video featuring the 2011 Relay For Life of Second Life, Relay weekend track Tour. His timing was perfect in my books, with everyone eagerly looking forward to the Kick Off to the new season, only days away.

I Remember that day, every hour, every moment, the awe of the creativeness, the hours, weeks and months of dedication by so many, the whole scale of things that is Relay For Life of Second Life, and I remember the buckets of tears I wept that day.

Everyone eventually talks about their "defining" moment in Relay, well one of my strongest ones, was on that day, well to be precise, in the wee hours of that dark night.

I Remember my excitement when I first saw the map of the track, having a math background quickly saw this track was HUGE. 40 sims HUGE. Only took 2 sec to see that a 10 km / 6 mile track! That got me curious of past RFLofSL tracks.

A quick search and found info like in 2010,  the track was 8,670 meters long, walked by 1579 people, who did 2676 laps, covering a distance of 23,193,724 meters.

Saying that another way, in 24 hours, the people of RFLofSL traveled from Vancouver on the west coast, to Halifax on the east coast, and back, twice, or Seattle to Miami over 6 1/2 times. I had to look up Wikipedia for the circumference of the Earth: 40,075,017 metres! A quick check on the calculator and yup, in 2010 the total distance traveled was 58% of the circumference of the Earth. KEWL!

Now here's a mind blowing bit. In the 7 year history of Relay For Life of Second Life, the people of Second Life, have traveled 137,571.6 km or 85,482.6 Relay miles, that's 1/4 of the way to the Moon!

Everyone know that sometimes, the fun of excitement and anticipation of waiting for something, doesn't hold a candle to the reality of of that something. Well my Relay 2011 still affects me to this very day.

After all the buzz and sugar high of feeding off the build up to the opening wore off, and the list of things you wanted to do when you finally arrived, were getting checked off, I found myself in those wee hours and began to really look at this thing called Relay For Life of Second Life.


When I need to think, I like to walk, and so I walked.

I was just completing my 2nd silent laps and went I watched someone lite a luminary candle, track sides, and was moved. Was there, my gaze really became focused, on those endless rows of luminary candles, lining both sides of the track.

My next lap was not a pretty sight, on this side of the keyboard, as I walked and read but a small fraction of those 6 miles of luminaries.

Had the best cry of my life that night. At that particular time in my life, I was at the very bottom of my career / life crisis, living in a boarding house. My bed was next to the windows which face onto a grave yard for the church, just beyond. Interesting spot to be, at this very "defining" moment in Relay for me. I logged off for a bit and went for a real walk.

And yes I did go straight there, and started to read the head stones and cried a bit more. After a bit I found a nice spot to sit. It was still dark out, but you could begin to see the new day coming when I accidentally nodded off.

The next moment I remember, is having the sun breaking through, the one opening in the trees on the horizon, squarely in my eyes, jolting me awake. As I sat there admiring the sun rise, watching the birds and chipmunks beginning their foraging, and I remember feeling cleansed from my experience of the hours before. Was a most euphoric moment.

Wasn't until much later during that summer, I realized the weight of my real life situation, ad changed that day, and I was being fueled by a new passion.

That was one of my Relay "moments", that took me through the Remembrance of life.

Thank you Mr MarkTwain White for reminding me every detail of that day, with you're most beautiful efforts.

Bain