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

The Relay For Life Season Kickoff

By Bixyl Shuftan

On Sunday March 5 at 10 AM SL time, the Relay for Life's official fundraising season had it's Kickoff event. The first events had actually been the day before when "Paint Second Life Purple" had started, so this made for a little confusion as too which was the official start. But this being the "Kickoff," this was.

 This year's theme was "Passport to Hope." a reminder that the struggle against cancer is an international one. Yours truly was there representing his community's team: the Sunbeamers.

Speaking to the crowd was the Relay Committee.

Some were a little more relaxed than others.

Gem Sunkiller was a bit "Stilted" from a glitch.

IshtarAngel, Micheline, one of the photographers of the event.

Henning Lionheart aka "The Wolf" of Team Strange Journeys.

Tasha Fairplay

Wildstar Beaumont, Holocluck Henley, and Oldesoul Eldemar. Olde is wearing a "Shady Fox" t-shirt.

Bain Finch and Panza Elde.

Isolte Ember, the captain of the "Ponies for Life" team.

Kalila Mahoney's avatar complexity was a little high, so she wasn't showing on some people's viewers.

This lady was wearing a mask, though it looked a little like the "dirty binoculars" prank from years ago.

RacerX Gullwing of the Giant Snail Racing team and Arizona Ballinger.

Avariel Falcon was a little late to the event, but made it over.

At one point, they were discussing the new "Passport HUD."

The Passport HUD, named after this year's theme, is a new tool one has to use this year to get certain Relay tools, such as the Relay team kiosks. This year, the kiosks cannot simply be passed around freely.

Looks like something broke. I myself ended up crashing several times

At one point, many of us were in a conga dance.

Some other girls were doing their own dancing. Note one nearby avatar that would not fully rezz.

 Some of the "Tiny Chrononauts."

Eventually, the Kickoff was over. But there would be a large number of events that day, as well as the Fashion for Life that had started. Once again, it was time to Relay. Time to once again raise money to help the American Cancer Society in it's effort to find treatments and funds against cancer, and have a little fun while doing so.

Already after less than a week, a few teams have already hit Gold rank in the fundraising totals. My own team, the Sunbeamers, haven't raised much so far as we've already had to raise funds for a friend in need. But we're expected to soon catch up. You can find our kiosks at Club Cutlass in Sunweaver Bay  (114/117/757), the Happy Vixen at Purrfection Estates (236/219/24), and the SL Newser office at HV Community (140/85/25).

On one amusing note, "Stinky the Relay Skunk" is back. Already one team has been "skunked." So this is sure to mean a number of skunk parties, and no doubt a few SL skunks dropping in.

For a recording of the RFL Kickoff, Bain Finch made one available at https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3OKHH-Ty8aLVFlDV0Z6ZjJoV3M/view?usp=sharing . Wildstar Beaumont made some pictures available on his Flickr page.

"Go Relay!"

Bixyl Shuftan