Honestly, I am indeed one of the most inconsistent bloggers in Second Life!  I started the year off so well, and really wanted to do so much more in blogging but my other activities got the best of me!  Now that said, those activities were mostly all related to Relay For Life of Second Life.  Raising awareness and funds for The American Cancer Society in Second Life has been an activity that I’ve been involved with for 6 years now.  The charity holds a special place for me because of the number of family and friends that have battled cancer over the years and either won or did not.  I don’t know a single person that has not been touched by this disease even in some remote way.  In 2013, I was honored to serve as the Events Area Chair.  It was my first year on the committee and it was scary but rewarding.  I never knew if I was doing the right things or if we would actually be successful…but guess what?  We were!  In fact, the 2013 season brought so many firsts.  I really had not settled down to share, but it was truly amazing to see the people of Second Life come together all season and make a difference every day.  This year, in 2013, the Second Life community raised over $392,000 USD for the American Cancer Society during the Relay For Life season!  The season kicked off on March 9th and we closed it out with a wrap up party on August 10.  Five months and so much work … but oh so worth it!

Our actual Event weekend was held on July 13/14 and was also a rousing success.  My amazing team which included the most fantastic creator, Grace Loudon, and her partner Sean Devin, pulled together designers to create some really cool sites as well as setting up the space for the teams to have a presence on the track.  My co-chair, Pinkie Fellini and our events leads, Ashlynn Enoch and Dianna Wycliffe, worked tirelessly to ensure the auction items and musical entertainment was set up.  On event weekend, I stayed up nearly over 36 hours working with Linden Labs to try to keep the sims up and running smoothly.  Linden Labs staff were awesome and supportive throughout.  We managed 40  sims and while the start off was rocky, we never had any sims down for more than a few minutes due to crashing.  All in all, from Opening Ceremonies, through the Survivor/Caregiver lap, to the Luminaria Ceremony, past the Fight Back lap and into the Closing Ceremonies, we had avatars on the track…visiting the campsites, exploring the designer builds, donating continually, making new friends and visiting with old friends.  As we moved into the Closing Ceremonies, the Planning Committee were on the stream sharing just how close we were to raising the TWO Millionth US Dollar!  We had talked about it all weekend and when we got to closing ceremonies, we were around $7000 USD away.  The Planning Committee (NIkki Mathieson, Dwen Dooley, Serina Juran and Sting Raymaker) stayed on the air and urged all to empty their pockets.  In less than 1 hour, we hit that mark and the 2 millionth dollar was donated either in world or via the online donation site!  It was amazing!!  People are truly amazing and supportive!

We are in off-season now.  You will still see kiosks around and vendors as well.  The lindens that are paid to these still all go to the American Cancer Society so the giving really never has to stop, just as cancer never sleeps.  Maybe you would like to get more involved with the Relay For Life of Second Life community in 2014.  Think about it… the season will kick off on March 8th, 2014.  If you are interested in finding out more throughout the year, join the “Relay For Life Volunteers” group in Second Life or follow on Facebook or Twitter or visit the website regularly.  All will be updated with information as the year progresses.

Thank you to the community of Second Life for continuing to give, support and promote Relay For Life in Second Life.  You are all amazing and every linden you dropped in a kiosk or vendor has made a difference!  Until there is a cure, we RELAY!!   Join the fight!

~Sunshine ❤