Today is a very special day at SL9B – because we are holding our first charitable benefit this year.

Dream Seeker Estates had designated June as the month they would support the charity Broadway Cares / Equity Fights AIDS well before they came on board as sponsors of SL9B. We decided that in return for their support, we would have a day of fundraising for their chosen charity.

So today you will find special donation jars at the the stages, the auditorium AND the Welcome Area.  Please give generously, to show your support of this important cause – and to show how support for such initiatives is, for Second Life residents, every bit as important as celebrating the Birthday.

About BC/EFA…

Broadway Cares / Equity Fights AIDS is one of America’s leading industry-based, nonprofit AIDS fundraising and grant-making organizations. By drawing upon the talents, resources and generosity of the American theatre community, since 1988 BC/EFA has raised over $195 million for essential services for people with AIDS and other critical illnesses across the United States.

BC/EFA is the major supporter of seven programs at The Actors Fund, including The HIV/AIDS Initiative, The Phyllis Newman Women’s Health Initiative, The Al Hirschfeld Free Health Clinic, The Actors Fund Work Program, The Dancers’ Resource, The Stage Managers’ Project and three supportive housing residences.

BC/EFA also awards annual grants to more than 400 AIDS and family service organizations nationwide.

Party and Fun are the two regions at SL9B sponsored by Fruit Islands, and they both live up to their names – and provide more insight into the sheer breadth and depth of SL’s community – and how it helps support RL communities and organisations. Again, with 72 parcels spread across the two sims, it’s impossible to cover everything, so here are some that particularly caught my eye.

Party is where you’ll find Crap Mariner’s 100-word Stories exhibit, which I mentioned in my SL9B Preview. Not only does this directly celebrate the written and spoken word within SL, it also providers LMs to other storytelling exhibits both within the SL9B regions, and which are celebrating SL’s anniversary elsewhere.

Across the road from 100-word Stories is Mairead Fitzgerald’s brilliant and captivating Petite Experience. Here you can discover the growing world, so to speak, of petite avatars in SL. Things here are scaled to give you the sensation of being a petite wandering “normal”-sized SL, and you can find out about petite avatars and petite builds. The sheer delight of the build makes it one of my favourites at SL9B, so no apologies from me for including a couple of photos here!

Just behind the Petite Experience sits the Maze of Life, an exhibit for the Asperger’s Support Network. Created by Kelindra Talamasca, the maze is about finding one’s way in life and helpes represent the challenges those with Asperger’s or autism face.There is a very moving notecard provided with the piece, and I do recommend a visit. Autism itself is explained at the Autism Society of America’s pavilion on Fun – which again is a worthwhile-visit.

Also on Party are pavilions for Alcoholics Anonymous, which again demonstrates how SL reaches out to the real world to provide support, advice and information, and the SLe Educators, which shows that despite all the trails and tribulations educators have faced within Second Life, many still do operate here and are deserving of our – and Linden Lab’s  – support. Close to these sits the Virtual Railway Consortium, providing a wealth of information, LMs and freebies for those interested in SL’s transportation and rail networks.

The educational theme is continued on Fun with a very-well package display by the Rockcliffe University Consortium, which provides information on education across SL and provides a visual history of Rockcliffe’s five years in Second Life.

One of SL’s most famous communities – that of Caledon – can be found on Party, with an impressive build that celebrates Caledon itself and art in Caledon as well as offering weary travellers across SL9B a place to sit down and catch their breath.

As many in SL and on Twitter know, I’m quite into space exploration and astronomy, so I enjoyed  Takni Miklos’ planetarium, where you can explore the night sky in a very effective interactive piece. For those wanting to take the SL time machine, alongside of the planetarium is an original SL Starter Home, as supplied free to residents way back in 2003. Provided by Uccello Poultry, the build is a great little visit and – dare I say – a demonstration of how very little things have in some ways changed between houses then and houses found on *cough* Linden Homes estates…

The breedables communities in SL are well represented across Party and Fun with Oceania Breedables, Biobreeds, Meeroos and BattleBeast Breedables all having dispplays – the latter’s being a delightful “dragon-go-round” carousel.

The elven communities are represent on Fun through the exhibit by the Elf Circle Community, which sits alongside the Exodus Viewer stand, where you can learn about how this TPV can help with photography and machinima production.

There is much more to see and explore in both Party and Fun – as well as the rest of the SL9B regions. With the weekend coming, if you haven’t already visited SL9B, why not start making plans to do so? The entertainment schedule updates daily – and don’t forget, everything closes at midnight SLT on the 27th!