Scenes From The Relaystock

 

By Bixyl Shuftan

 

The Relayers had a lot of fun at the Relaystock Woodstock tribute from Friday May 12 to Sunday May 14. There were numerous teams taking part, as well as numerous live musicians and DJs. On Satutday night, it was the turn of two certain teams. At 6PM, DJ Cynthia of Team Subneamers would get on stage, dancing with a number of teammates, including team captain Rita Mariner, Nydia Tungsten, and Shockwave Yareach.

 

 

Like other teams the "Sunnies" had their campsite. 

 

 Some would hang out there for a while.

 

 

Team Captain Rita Mariner, in her "Bid Me" skunk form, demonstrates one new Sunbeamer item up for sale this year, "The Hindenburger," which floated around her. 

Nydia Tungsten had Internet trouble weeks, but thankfully was able to get online for the Relaystock.

Cynthia Farshore had gotten a temporary reprieve from her "Bid Me Ruth," back in her nannygoat form.

At the time, I was in a lapine appearance due to the "Bid Me Bunny" I volunteered for. 

At the nearby Meli's Maniacs' camp, Ginger (Dusk Griswold) would occasionally play the drums).

When not there, we were often at the music stage.

Among the DJs were some live musicians, such as Maxamillian Kleene. 

Team leaders Trader Whiplash and Arizona Ballinger were dancing away as well with the audience, sometimes on top of the nearby van.

On Saturday afternoon May 13, over time most of the more active members of Team Sunbeamers came to the event area. At first it was to dance in the mud alongside the others.

As 6PM neared, the 'beamers gathered behind the stage.

Practicing their dance moves, making sure everyone was coordinated.

Finally it was time to get on stage. Trader Whiplash joked, "Did you wipe your feet before you climbed up there?" Shockwave responded, "You all having fun out there in the mud?"

Cynthia started the music, and the Sunnies started to dance. They danced to a number of classic rock songs as Cynthia played them.

With the furry dancers on stage before a mostly human audience, Shockwave mused, "Everybody avoid the brown acid. Everyone on stage looks like an animal to me." There were other musing as well, "I don't know what the age of Aquariums was." When the song "Something In The Air" was played, someone commented, "Something in the Air?  Another darn Chinese Balloon?" "Would you like to spy, in my beautiful balloon?" "The thing with Chinese Spy Balloons, there is always another along in about an hour." "Chinese balloons are never full."

 

Eventually the songs took a break for a short announcement reminding people to not keep snacking while sitting at their computer. Then the music resumed with "Sugar Sugar," which got some people musing, "Good song to follow that announcement (laughter)." "Hehe funny, they say not to eat or drink at your desk then they put on this song (giggles)." When the song "California Dreamin'" was played, Valkyrie Ice, the team succubus, mused, "Val always thought it was 'Califirnia Demons.'" When Arthur Brown's "Fire" was played, Shockwave grinned, "I was tempted to rez a giant fire for this song." When the song "Eve of Destruction" was played, Ginger mused, "the time before I am about to cook." Then came "Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season)" by The Byrds. Ginger mused, "There is a seasoning for nearly all food. ... To everything I cook, burn burn burn."

 At one point, Shock challenged the crowd, "Okay audience!!  You got no L, but wanna contribute? Answer this question and you get 1K in the kiosk! ... What color is the Tamborine?" Several people answered "green." Shock grinned, "Damn all you know that song." Ginger mused, "We're old." Liska joked, "Listen while I eat my green tangerine." Cynthia would then play "My Green Tambourine," which Nydia Tungsten did a video of a few years ago to celebrate the team reaching Emerald for the first time.

 

When donations came in, the kiosk would give the following message:

Thank you for creating hope! Donations to this kiosk are distributed to the American Cancer Society IRL, and used to fund life-saving cancer research grants and patient services that benefit the entire world, including residents of Second Life through Hope Haven on American Cancer Society island.

Team captain Rita had pledged to match donations, and they kept coming in. Shockwave would soon challenge the crowd that if enough was raised, he'd wear a nightgown, looking like the "Big Bad Wolf" trying to disguise himself as Little Red Riding Hood's grandmother, "Anyone makes it 45K I'll wear the whole Grandma outfit." Well, the amount was soon raised, and he made good on his promise. Shock would muse, "People just don't understand the whole wearing grandma's clothes kink." Liska mused, "You should get back into World of Warships, Shocky, you could be a wolf in ship's clothing." Eventually, he heard the pictures being taken, "That better not be a camera flash I see in the back!!"

Ginger, who was in an anthro otter avatar, commented, "Earlier someone here told me I made their autistic son's day, as he loves otters." Cynthia's response was, "Well you 'otter' do that more often."

Then Nydia made her own challenge, shouting, "Tell you all what, if we get to 40K, I will go human for a week 50 K am I will go human for TWO weeks! For this cause, I will DO IT!" To her surprise, it was quickly matched. Shockwave groaned, "We just got her back!! And now she's gotta shave?!" Her response was to up the ante, " I am putting out here. IF we reach $100K I will go human for over 1 MONTH!" FluffyFoxy364 Resident offered, "I'll go Shark for a month if the Sunbeamers hit 1 Million." Someone responded, "We're gonna need a bigger stage"

The offers to match donations continued to come in, Brian (BrianL61 Landar) offering, "I will donte $L1000 if two people match me, I will donate another $L2000."

 

Finally Rita announced, "By the way, we hit 100K mudpuppies." Hearing that she had to make good on her promise, Nydia spoke, "Okay I love you ALL, but I'm a shut my mouth now. ... I will be Human until JUNE 15th!" Her friends cheered, "Go Nydia!"

At one point, someone rezzed a Volkswagon Beetle painted in 60s colors and started driving around. Eventually the driver lagged and spun out of the sim, crashing afterwards.

Among the funnery, some of the team would explain some personal reasons for why they were in the Relay for Life. Shockwave Yareach would say, "My dad and stepmom died from cancer.  I relay for them. ...  I hope we can find the magic bullet and stop this terror." Ginger would add, "My Mom died from cancer when I was 12, I mostly relay for her. ... My sister and sister in law survived breast cancer, fairly recently." Snowy (Skylark Lefavre) would say, "I relay for my 11 year-old (SL) daughter cancer took." Nydia spoke, "I survived cancer, but I relay for my friends and family and those I care for here in SL!" Liska remarked, "Resident): Been fairly lucky with family, I relay mostly for Fluffy.  Cancer went after him, and cancer got it's ass kicked."

 

Rita would say, "We relay for many of our friends and family who lost the fight against cancer." Ginger would say, "Our campsite will have items out representing those we have lost and those who are either fighting it or survived." Shockwave told, "Together, we remember them, and try to save the next generation!"

Eventually, the end of the Sunweaver's time on stage was in sight. Shockwave told the crowd, "We are grateful for your generosity.  And we hope you've enjoyed the trip down memory lane," then grinned about his outfit, "even if this is one memory I'll regret." Fireworks would soon be launched into the air, better visible when the viewer was set to Midnight. 

 

Finally, it was over, and time for the 'beamers to leave the stage.

From Cynthia Farshore

The team had done very well, that night, raising over 111,000 Linden dollars, or as Cynthia put it, "WWHHOOOOOOOAaaaaaa! Goat is going to faint!" "That was a lot of fun," Mato would say, "we raised a lot!"

 

An amount of a few tens of thousands would come from one generous donor who prefers to stay anonymous.

It was then 7:30PM, and time for the last performance that night, DJ Kayla with other members of "Roos With A Dream."

As the Roos' set wound down, they joined those of the Sunbeamer team that had stuck around.

From Cynthia Farshore

When the Roos' set ended at 9PM, they'd gotten another large amount of cash. They'd raised over 126,000 Linden dollars, even more than the Sunbeamers. For the home team, the Relay Rockers, they'd gotten the largest boost of all from the event. When the final performance on Sunday night, Trader Whiplash's, was over, the team had been pushed past the one million mark, and Emerald rank fundraising. A few days later, the Rockers would score more with the "Bid The Lindens Bald" event, which sent them past the two million mark.

On the last day of the Relaystock, Sunday May 14, Sunbeamer captain Rita would say, "I want to thank those of you that participated yesterday at Relaystock. It was a blast and we set a record for raising donations for the Sunbeamers. The ROOS beat us in total, but they loved our help.  Between the two of us, we raised enough to make a team go from zero to Platinum."

The last comment would be Trader Whiplash's who on Wednesday May 17 announced how much the events raised:

Final totals are in for the RelayStock weekend and today's  Bid Lindens & Moles Bald

L$1,825,179
$7,437 US

Thanks You to all the teams who took part in RelayStock and everyone who came over to enjoy the weekend and to those who took part in today's Bid The Lindens Bald.  You all rock !

It was one groovy weekend with lots of mud, rock n' roll, and fun Relaying.

Go Sunbeamers! Go Roos! Go Rockers! Go Relay!

Bixyl Shuftan

Addition: The lady who donated the few tens of thousands of Lindens was Charlee Amethyst.