The 2019 Relay Season Ends

By Bixyl Shuftan

"All good things must come to an end." And so it was the case with the Relay for Life's fundraising season for 2019. Things were somewhat different this year as the season had been shifted a month early, from February to June instead of from March to July, to avoid an anticipated drop in activity in Second Life, and donations. For this season, "All Aboard For A Cure," besides some successful teams from last year and before, there were some new teams that did very well, such as the motorcross teams in the "Five Days of Relay."

Although the Relay Weekend was on June 8 and 9, and the track was taken down soon after, the season hadn't ended quite yet. Some teams planned one or two more events for a little extra push to raise a little more funding. On Wednesday June 19, the Spirit of the Dragon RFL team decided to throw one more party for "Just One More Hurrah! ...Please Join us as this remarkable team celebrates a last Hurrah before Wrap Up !! ... Tonite  we sing and dance and thank all for a wonderful Relay Season."

The party went from 4 to 7PM SL time, with musicians Loreen Aldrin, Melenda Baptiste, and
Frogg Marlowe. There were also Adorsy, Kitty Creations and EED Home and Garden 1000L gift certificates available. At the end of the event, team founder Darkstone Aeon announced the team had hit Jade level fundraising, which had been far beyond his original expectations at the season's start.

Spirit of the DragonRFL was going to be a team of 1 - I was going to put a few vendors out at my store and that was it - whatever was raised  would be good enough -  because of a few special folks who pushed and prodded    and made me think why I wanted to relay - we have now hit L$: 511,051  so for Kammie Eva Ted Jad - BB and a few others who took me kicking and hollering  down the Relay Road I thank you !

Two days later on Friday February 21, three of the smaller teams would have a joint event, hosted by team Mini A Chu and involving Ryukyu Warriors and Harshlands, from 11 AM to 8 PM SL time.

There's a Mini Dragon Roo Wrap-Up party in Harshlands For a Cure with Friends Lurking in Shadow starting at 11am slt Friday all the way till 8pm SLT with DJs from multiple teams and this will be our last attempt to bring 3 teams to Silver: Mini A Chuu, Ryukyu Warriors and Harshlands, bring your friendsssss, plus this is an exhibition of things, for this duration only, if you donate a certain amount to either Ryukyu Warriors, Mini A Chuu, Harshlands, you will get to choose a diorama of your choice, an absolute unique and ultimately detailed Mini A Chuu's specialized product

from Chuu Hikari Akamine

And for one random hour (given im awake) any product branded Mini A Chuu products bought will all be donatwd to each team RFL kiosk

It was a fun party, with some of the new noodle dragon avatars dancing away with the humans and furs. Teams Mini A Chuu and Harshlands would reach Silver level.

 Saturday June 22 would be the last event of one of the larger teams, Team ACTS Royal Ascot. Following the horse race was a dance.

The event, and later donations, would move the team up past Sapphire level (750,000 Lindens) to Ruby level fundraising, 1,250,000 Lindens / $5000 USD raised.

That afternoon and evening was perhaps the last event before the closing one. Team Shadow held a "Summer Solstice" party at it's Shadowed Forest Glen.

You are invited to join Team Shadow as we celebrate the Summer Solstice, Saturday from 5:00 to 7:00 pm SLT at the Shadowed Forest Glen. Formal or fae/fantasy fear requested, however, not required. Bring your kiosk and help us celebrate the close of the 2019 RFL of SL season.

The Sunbeamers and Roos With a Dream were among the teams taking part. Team Shadow would hit Silver.

Finally on Sunday June 23 was the Relay Wrap-Up event.

Join us ... as we say goodbye to the 2019 Relay Season!  Come and celebrate the amazing year we had!  Final Fund Raising Awards, as well as Community Champions, Spirit of Relay, and the Gordy Klatt Awards will be given.  It is time to PARTY and CELEBRATE!  See you there!

While the official start was at 10AM, there was some music and dancing beforehand.

Some final awards for the season would be given out. Among the people honored were Jamie Broken for her technical work and Ishtarangel for her photography.

There would be some more dancing afterwards.

It was a party that would last for a while, the last event of the season.

There would also be a poll given out for a choice of two themes for next year: cartoons or games.

Shortly after the Wrap-Up, Stingray would send the following message:

As the American Cancer Society staff partner for Second Life, I would like to sincerely thank our community for its generosity and support. This year, 198 teams participated in the Relay For Life movement and raised $238,900 to help the American Cancer Society attack cancer in our virtual world.

We were honored to welcome and celebrate the lives of hundreds of cancer survivors. Our luminaria ceremony demonstrated the community's warmth and strength in honoring survivors and those who are no longer with us.

I would also like to thank the Relay For Life event volunteer leadership teams, team captains, and participants who worked so hard to make this year's event a success. And of course, thank you to our premier sponsors, RGF Estates, The Chilli Post, Relay Refresh, Rockliffe University, and Sol Existence. By coming together once again, you all made this season a spectacular success!

Together, we can beat our biggest rival, and we're already getting started on planning for 2020. To ensure you receive  timely information, follow us on Facebook, join the Relay For Life Volunteers Group, and/or visit RelayForLife.org/SecondLife.

With all of my appreciation and gratitude,

Stingray9798 Raymaker
Jeffrey Montegut
Sr. Consultant, Virtual Community Development
American Cancer Society

 For my own team, the Sunbeamers, it's the end of another successful year. Three of our most active members had to deal with real-life trouble, including one having to go to the hospital to have cancer treated after thankfully discovered early so it was more easily dealt with. Despite the problems, the team continued to do well, and ended up with achieving Jade level for the second time in it's history and the second time it won a campsite trophy. For the Sunweaver/Angel community, "the little team that could" continues to be a source of pride, and over a decade after her passing continuing the work of the late Artistic Fimicloud.

So we say goodbye to the 2019 Relay for Life in Second Life season "All Aboard for a Cure," and look forward to the next one.

Bixyl Shuftan

SL16B Opening Speech

Although the Second Life Sixteenth Birthday started June 20, it was on the 21st that the opening speech was given. On that day, residents were told it would be at the Festival Stage, which was filling the role held by the "Cake Stage" of the resident-run SLB events.

Like "The Cake," the Festival Stage covered the meeting corners of four sims, SL16B Exhilarate, Fascinate, Magnificent, and Mesmerize. This allows a large number of residents to be at an event at once.

The one problem, it can take a while, and processing power, to rezz all those avatars.

Squeaky Mole told everyone, "Voice is enabled for the speech, but we would like to ask you  to not speak as residents. This is for Patch Linden only! We'll also type the speech for those without voice enabled. Thank you! (If possible, during the speech please do not spam the chat so everyone can read on their own speed). ... Please do not request Linden Bears until after the speech!" Squeaky would also text Patch Linden's speech to the crowd.

"Welcome to all who have come! Thank you for being with us today to celebrate Second Life turning 16! I’d like to start out with taking an opportunity to thank some people. First, Ebbe Linden, Linden Lab’s CEO.  Ebbe has blessed me with the opportunity to be here with all of you today, and empowered me to do what I am for all of you.  I will be forever grateful for everything you have enabled for me Ebbe, for Second Life and Linden Lab. All of these people came together to make this entire event, these regions and all of the support with the coordination of the events to ensure it will run smoothly: Our Resident volunteer staff: Leondra, Cordie, Golan, Pygar, Dawny, Chloe, Jackstir and the rest of the stage crew, greeters and other volunteers. Our Moles: Squeaky, Ancient & Magic, Abnor, Naughty, Silent, Mischievious, Alotta, plus others who were involved with creating the content you are surrounded with in these regions. Other Lindens for their involvement and support:  Derrick, Xiola, Brett, Constantine, Strawberry, Kristin, Tommy plus many more who were behind the scenes supporting our efforts..And our many Resident content contributors, exhibitors, and performers, who will put their talents on display throughout the event and our various streaming services partners.

"For sixteen years, we have been able to experience a vast array of people, communities, lifestyles, and places all connected in a meaningful and immersive environment.  Second Life has brought all of us an entire world of diversity and openness, which in any other environment could continue to be challenging to discover, whether that be in real life, elsewhere, or even on other platforms. We continue to witness Second Life enable people from all corners of the globe to create, socialize, experiment, develop relations, engage in education, or business and even perhaps find the love of their life.  Sometimes those may follow through into the real world with opportunities as it has for me…. in both the professional sense and the personal sense such as with my loving husband who is also here with us today. 

"As Second Life continues to demonstrate what it has over the past 16 years, that you can find almost every interest you might have, presented in various and unique ways.... we are committed to helping and allowing everyone continue to explore, create, and socialize for many years to come. Let us all take the time to go and explore the regions that the entire community has worked on for this very special event. We hope all of you enjoy the festivities and we look forward to another great year! Without further delay…  Join us 10am SLT as we listen to incredible music by Parker Static.

"Happy 16th Birthday Second Life!!"

There would be a video available of the speech, but unedited footage. The speech itself was about from 5:15 to 8:55 in the video.

The crowd listened, then applauded once it was over.

Among the Lindens there was Strawberry, whom had been known as Strawberry Singh until hired in April by the Lab.

It wasn't long at all before some began asking for Linden bears.

But besides passing them out, they also started riding copies of one particular devilish-looking bear.

Kona Linden looked rather serious as his peers were funning around behind him.

At 10AM, Parker Static, the first of the Music Faire musicians, began singing.

Which resulted in Lindens and Residents dancing away.

As the day went on, there would be more singers at the Festival Stage. And this would be just the first day out of two for it. And there will be more events to come at the SL16B.

Bixyl Shuftan

Scenes From The Newser Anniversary Party

By Bixyl Shuftan

 On Saturday June 1, the Newser celebrated it's ninth anniversary party. Although the actual anniversary date wouldn't be until June 5, the party was held on the Saturday before so more people had a chance to attend. So from Noon to 3PM, we all danced to a little music.

The event was held at the Happy Vixen, the beach club of the Sunweaver/Angel community, where the Newser has it's office building. The club is in the Purfection Estates (the sim got it's name before being handed to it's current owner).

The DJs for the party were Grease Coakes and Snowbuns (Skylark Lefavre), and the club is owned by Nydia Tungsten, longtime friends of the paper.

Marcel Mosswood was there, as were Gemma Cleanslate and Deaflegacy (I didn't have good close-up pictures of them).

For those whose picture I didn't get, sorry, but it was something of a dizzying day.

We had a number of friends at the party, such as Cynthia Farshore, whom has done some ads on her Farshore Radio stations for a few years.

Gemma's friend Evola was there, still wearing the hat from the cartoon he was in.

 A Relayer, whom was also one of the lawmen in the Tombstone community, was also there.

Lia (Female Winslet) was there, "hot dogging" it.

The party would go on for a few hours. As it was part of the Relay for Life club crawl, organized by team Harmony for Hope, Grease and Snowy took no tips, instead accepting donations in the RFL kiosks. Team Sunbeamers got about 1500 Lindens during the event as a result of the party, the club having raised over 64,000 Lindens for it even before the event. Team Harmony for Hope's kiosk had over 10,000 even before the event, and more donated during.

The prize was originally 500 Lindens, but some generous soul bumped it up to a thousand. The prize was split by Lia and ThetempestAngel.

Others would drop by the party, such as people from Team Harmony for Hope and Gentle Heron and others from Virtual Ability. Prokofy Neva would message me, congratulating the team for it's longevity, saying we were the last of the old time SL newspapers, and sending us some boxes of candy.

Thank you all for your support over the years.

Bixyl Shuftan