The 2021 Relay Kickoff

 By Bixyl Shuftan

After months of waiting, the Relay for Life's 2021 fundraising season finally started on Saturday February 20.

The theme for this year, "Cure for a Happy Ending."

Yours truly hopped over a couple days early for a few pictures of the American Cancer society sim.

But what was behind the curtain wouldn't be revealed until later.

The schedule that day was: 9am - music by Trader then at 10am the Kick Off Ceremony. Following that was the "all day party" with 11am music by Fiz Underwood, 1pm Purelife Magnifico, 3pm Riker, 5pm Tazzie Tuque, 7pm Anni Braveheart. Those who couldn't listen inworld could tune to T1Radio and RelayRadio on their webbrowsers.

Gemma Cleanslate was there before I was, and got a few pictures.

The sim where most of the action was, American Cancer Society2, was full with 60 avatars. I was at the edge of ACS in the "overflow" with over two dozen more.

Because of the Platinum Avatar Challenge, I was in a different form, a tiny Dinkie fox. 

Some of the people didn't show up as much more than body parts early on, but Stingray Raymaker and Gem Sunkiller rezzed okay.

Several members of team Friends For A Cure, including co-captains Ari and Adam Spark. Behind them are Avariel Falcon, Bane Finch, and Panza Eilde.

There were several members of team Sunbeamers, Matt Carlton, Liska Fuchs, Spooked Dreamscape, Snowbuns (Skylark Lefavre) and Nikki (Cynthia Farshore had made it ahead of us)

One of the HC Honor Guard.

By now, most people had rezzed, most of them. I still needed to "cover some butts" in the editing room.

The lighting was best viewed at Midnight. We caught up with Cynthia.

MamaP Alter (AlterP Beerbaum) was among those dancing to the music.

Visible at times were scenes of fireworks.

 In the back of the sim behind the castle was a "Road to Recovery."

It was a path with a number of obstacles.

But persistence eventually overcomes them.

For those interested, the "Road to Recovery" is still up, at least for now.

A video of the event was made, and pictures can be found on the RFL Flickr page, including Ishtarkiss's Kickoff album.

Go Relay!

Bixyl Shuftan