Category: Relay For Life

Fantasy Faire 2014: getting ready for the Faire

Posted on by Inara Pey

I’m a little behind on a number of things, including updates on Fantasy Faire 2014.

The Faire, an annual event in Second Life in support of RFL of SL and the American Cancer Society will this year run from May 1st through 11th inclusive, and the official press release announcing the event on April 1st, reads in part:

Celebrating its sixth year, Fantasy Faire 2014 is the largest gathering of fantasy designers, enthusiasts, roleplayers and performers in the virtual world. From Thursday, May 1 to Sunday May 11, treat yourself to eleven days of shopping, live music concerts, auctions, hunts and roleplaying as thousands of Second Life residents and creators bring their own visions together to support the American Cancer Society’s vision of a world without cancer.

Avatars, clothing, furnishings, gadgets and exclusive items are available from more than 150 of SL’s top Fantasy Creators across eleven stunning sims designed by some of the visionary artists behind many of the hottest spots on the SL destination guide.

Sponsors

Sponsors of Fantasy Faire 2014 include:

  • Event sponsors: Curious Kitties, Dark Goddess Designs, Epic, .Luminary., L’Uomo and Spyralle
  • Region sponsors: Cerridwen’s Cauldron, Creators of Fantasy, Dwarfins, Fallen Gods Inc., Fuubutsu-Dou, The Looking Glass, NeoVictoria, Roawenwood and Solarium.

Bloggers

Applications from people wishing to be official bloggers are currently being accepted. This year will see a change to how things are run, as the Blogger FAQ & application post explains:

This year there will be some changes to how the Faire blogging occurs. First of all, there will be no obligatory assignments. Instead there will be challenges. We do not want to force anyone to do anything, we want to inspire, dare, encourage: challenge.

It’s worth taking the time to read the FAQ in detail, as there are some important changes from previous years, including the option for people to blog for Fantasy Faire on the official blog. As it is worth reading the FAQ, I’m not linking directly to the blogger application form from here – please follow the link at the end of FAQ page.

The blogger challenges mentioned in the FAQ are open to anyone, whether accepted as an official blogger or not. These are designed to encourage bloggers to cover the event from unique perspectives. In all, there are three blogger challenges:

  • Faire Folk: bloggers are invited to create a character from the Fairelands and pick one of the Faire sims as their home, make a look mostly from Faire items, make the character come alive. Take at least one picture of that character in the chosen home sim and blog away!
  • My New Shiny: bloggers are asked to find a shop in the Fairelands they have never heard of before and blog something from the store. It’s about finding and showcasing the hidden talents, the newcomers, the surprises at this year’s Faire
  • Why I Relay: a challenge for those who have a personal reason to support Relay for Life events and who would like to share it.

As I blogged the 2013 Fantasy Faire from the perspective of a traveller passing through the Fairelands, I  rather like the Faire Folk challenge.

 Keeping up with Fantasy Faire

You can keep-up with Fantasy Faire preparations and activities a number of ways:

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Relay for Life Kick-off Celebration and events

Posted on by Inara Pey

logoSaturday March 8th and Sunday March 9th mark the Relay for Life of SL kick-off celebration, which will be taking place alongside a number of RFL team events being held across the grid as the 2014 Relay for Life season gets officially underway in Second Life.

There’s a lot going on, with plenty to keep people occupied and enjoying themselves,  with plenty of entertainment, music and opportunities to both fund-raise and donate to the cause.

The Kick-off Celebration

Relay For Life of Second Life kicks off it’s fundraising season on March 7-9th with a weekend FULL of celebration!  Teams have been registering and will be present at the kick-off regions with team vendors, kiosks and flags waving to show their team spirit.

On Saturday at noon the official Kick-Off Ceremony will begin.  This year’s ceremony will be presented by the 2014 Steering Committee, Stingray Raymaker, Nikki Mathieson, Dawnbeam Dreamscape and Random Padar Darrow.  It will also include a survivor speaker NickiB27 and readings from this year’s Division Chairs, Gemstone Sunkiller (Internal Support), Sunshine Zhangsun (Events/Design), Serina Juran (PR, Outreach) and Dwen Dooley (Tech).  The ceremony will conclude with the traditional PARADE OF TEAMS and with that, the 2014 RFL of SL Journey will officially begin!

Journey to Africa as a part of the RFL of SL kick-off celebrations...
Journey to Africa as a part of the RFL of SL kick-off celebrations…

So reads, in part, the official announcement of the kick-off event, some details of which I’ve previously published.

There are four regions for the Kick-off celebration, which has the theme of A Journey Through the Continents. Follow the path through the continents, from the sands and plains of Africa or through the tropical rains forests of South America and onwards around the world, passing team kiosks where you can tarry a while, join silent auctions, queue for a kiss at the kissing booths, buy merchandise and enjoy other fund-raising activities while T1 Radio broadcast music and events.

...or wander the olde worlde quays and watersaide kiosks ...
…or wander the olde worlde quays and watersaide kiosks …

The main SLurls for the kick-off celebration are:

Other Events on the Weekend

If the kick-off celebration gets a little too crowded for you, why not try hopping over to one of these events over the weekend?

And there are a slew of events through the week and beyond, all a part of RFL of SL’s 10th anniversary year – see the RFL of SL Events page for details!

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RFL of SL 2014 kick-off celebration announcement

Posted on by Inara Pey
RFL of SL 2014 logo by Sunshine Zhangsun
RFL of SL 2014 logo by Sunshine Zhangsun

The 2014 Relay  for Life of SL season gets underway on the weekend of March 8th / 9th with the kick-off celebration. This is the tenth year RFL of SL has been held, and all involved are working hard to ensure it is a special anniversary.

In a press release about the celebration, Nikki Mathieson, this year’s Event Chair, said:

A favourite time of year, for many Second Life residents, is about to begin. The experience of working together for a cause that touches each of us so deeply is like no other experience, online or off. The support and camaraderie, the depth of passion to do more, reach further and spread awareness, while fundraising make this yearly campaign so special and amazing. We strike REAL blows to cancer. Relay For Life of Second Life is an incredible group of people who work hard KNOWING that they are saving REAL lives against an all-too-REAL disease. We need more volunteers to come join us and spread the word.. COME RELAY WITH US.

The kick-off regions will be opening to RFL of SL teams at 17:00 SLT on Friday March 7th, and the celebration proper get underway at noon  SLT on Saturday March 8th.

In keeping with this year’s overall theme for RFL of SL, A Journey of Promise, the celebratory weekend will focus on  A Journey Through the Continents. Relay teams have been invited to set-up kiosks on the path round the world within the kick-off regions, where they’ll be able to run a raffle or silent auction (or both) and / or a kissing booth, and have up to six vendors so that they can start-up their in-season fundraising efforts.

A look along the track from RFL SL 2012
A look along the track from RFL SL 2012

Activities through the weekend will include (all times SLT):

  • 17:00 Friday March 7th: regions open for Relay Teams to set-up in their assigned spaces along the path around the world, followed by a tailgate party
  • 10:00 Saturday March 8th: T1 Radio commence their celebration broadcasting from the regions
  • 12:00 noon, Saturday March 8th: Opening Ceremony featuring RFL Planning and other committee members, and cancer survivor Nickib27 will share her experiences and the role the American Cancer Society played in her fight. The ceremony will be streamed live by T1 radio for those unable to attend
  • Saturday March 8th afternoon / night: a range of entertainments featuring DJs and liver entertainers
  • Sunday March 9th will feature a dance troupe, more music and entertainment, and at 13:00, a game of Family Feud which will allow three Relay teams to compete with one another and the Planning Committee!
  • 22:00 Sunday March 9th: the kick-off celebration closes.

There is still time of those Relay Teams not registered for the celebration to do so. Teams just need to register via Google Docs, and do so by 23:59 SLT on Tuesday March 4, 2014.

Commenting on the celebrations, Stingray Raymaker, American Cancer Society staff partner, said: “I’m really excited about this year’s Kick-off because it’s the biggest Kick-off event that we’ve ever planned. The ceremony will be fantastic, but I’m really excited to see what our teams are selling in their Relay vendors!”

Other Relay for Life events scheduled for 2014 in SL include:

  • May 4-10: Halfway There Journey Week
  • July 19-20: Relay Weekend
  • August: Wrap-up Party

About RFL of SL

Relay For Life is the signature fundraising event of the American Cancer Society, and has grown into a world-wide event in the fight against cancer in all its forms.

Relay For Life of Second Life is an annual activity that takes place in Second Life in July each year. Volunteers form or join teams to have fun while fundraising and raising awareness from March through mid-July. In July, teams build campsites and walk a track, just like in a real world Relay. Over the last nine years, Relay For Life of Second Life has raised more than $2 million for cancer research and is the largest charity event in the virtual worlds. Several thousand volunteers from more than 80 countries participate each year, truly making it a global event.

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Fantasy Faire 2014: dates and some initial details

Posted on by Inara Pey

Fantasy Faire 2013Fantasy Faire 2013: Lumenaria

Trying to catch-up on a backlog of blog reading, I came across an update from Sonya Marmurek on the Fantasy Faire website announcing some of the details for this year’s event. The post was made on February 17th, and I’m not entirely sure how I missed it, as I’m sure I’ve looked at the FF website between then and now … Anyway, Sonya informs visitors to the site that:

Fantasy Faire 2014 will take place in the Fairelands unlike anything you’ve seen before, the lands change shape every year and every year they become better.

This year, the Faire will take place during the eleven days of Thursday May 1st through to Sunday May 11th inclusive.

Fantasy Faire 2013Fantasy Faire 2013: Magnificat

Interestingly, there will be a few changes in organisation this year. most notably, open applications for merchants will be limited in number, and will be available “some time after” Saturday March 15th.  As Sonya explains in the blog post, this is because:

The Faire is old and established and there are plenty of creators who are as much an integral part of it as the Fairelands themselves and we will first scribe in those registrations.

This announcement may give rise to some concern among merchants who might be wanting to participate in the Faire for the first time, but it’s also understandable as well; anyone who regularly travels through the Fairelands each year will be familiar with the excitement and pleasure of coming across “old friends” and seeing how they’re integrated presenting their goods into the year’s theme, and many creators really are as much a part of the event as the fabulous builds created each year and in which the Faire is hosted.

Fantasy Faire 2013Fantasy Faire 2013: Titan’s Hollow

Last year’s Faire was something very special; the conception and design of the Faireland regions added up to something quite extraordinary in look and feel, and I felt a tremendous sense of involvement during my wanderings through each of the ten regions, all of which seemed to present a continuing, evolving story to me and encouraged me to write about my explorations as if I were on a journey. I don’t know if my Traveller muse will return this year, but I’m very much looking forward to witnessing all that unfolds in the run-up to the Faire and the event itself.

Paint it purple: RFL of SL update

Posted on by Inara Pey
RFL of SL 2014 logo by Sunshine Zhangsun
RFL of SL 2014 logo by Sunshine Zhangsun

Saturday February 8th marks the opening of RFL of SL team registrations and the start of Paint SL  Purple campaign.

Those wishing to enter a team into this year’s RFL activities can register here. When registering, please note the following from the RFL of SL wesbite on team registrations:

Please keep in mind that fundraising tools will not be distributed immediately, but our Team Coaches will contact you after you register. We also plan to host some Team Captain Trainings again this year.  We encourage all Captains (rookies & veterans) to attend.  We’ll explain some of the changes for 2014, as well as provide an understanding of who to go to for various questions throughout the year.  There will be plenty more valuable information at these trainings; please plan to attend.

Details on the training will be announced soon.

Paint SL Purple is the campaign to raise awareness of RFL of SL throughout the grid, and to build excitement about the upcoming events of the season.  This year, Paint SL Purple runs through until the Kickoff weekend on Saturday March 8th and Sunday March 9th. Again, to quote from the RFL of SL blog:

So, make sure you find all your purple clothes, hair, accessories, and even skin!  Plant purple trees on your land, paint your walls purple, color your grass purple, and hang purple signs, banners, streamers, flags, and balloons.  Be sure to tell anyone who asks, “why all the purple?” that it’s for Relay For Life and invite them to learn more and possibly join the Relay family!

Dwen Dooley has put out a video on RFL of SL, covering some of the new / changed elements in this year’s RFL of SL activities and infrastructure.

Related Links

RFL of SL Activities: initial outline of 2014 events

Posted on by Inara Pey
RFL of SL 2014 logo by Sunshine Zhangsun
RFL of SL 2014 logo by Sunshine Zhangsun

Nikki Mathieson, who is chairing the 2014 RFL of SL event season has circulated a note card in-world outlining some more information on this year’s theme and providing the dates for some of the key events.

The is the tenth year in which the event will have been run in Second Life, and already some $110,000 USD has already been raised. The hope is that 2014 will be another record-breaking year.

There are some differences in the timetable this years, with one major event already rescheduled (the home and Garden Expo, which will take place in September, rather than the usual May), and some familiar activities will not be taking place in quite the way they have in the past.

Initial Event  / Activity Dates

Note the following is not a complete list of all RFL of SL events taking place in 2014, just those for which dates are available.

February

  • Sunday 2nd: first 2014 broadcast for Relay Rap
  • Saturday February 8th:  Team Registrations open and the Paint SL Purple event. If you’ve not already started forming your team, now is the time to do so, and more information on forming teams will be available soon
  • Team Convio Challenge: back for another year, this will occur in the first week of February (exact dates TBC), allowing teams to increase their fundraising totals using the convio tool

March

  • Saturday March 8th / Sunday March 9th: Kick-off weekend. The official RFL of SL 2014 season kick-off ceremony will take place on Saturday March 8th as a part of a weekend-long, multi-region, multi-team celebration

April

  • Friday April 4th – Sunday April 13th: 2014 Fashion for Life

May

  • Thursday May 1st – Sunday May 11th: Fantasy Faire 2014
  • Sunday May 4th – Saturday May 10th: The Halfway There Journey – a week-long series of team events across multiple regions to celebrate RFL of SL and the teams who fundraise
  • Sunday May 16th – Wednesday May 26th: Fiction for a Cure

June

  • Sunday May 30th – Tuesday 8th June: 7th SL Sci-Fi Convention

July

The Relay Weekend Welcome Area (2013)
The Relay Weekend Welcome Area (2013)
  • Sunday July 6th – Sunday July 20th: Summer Breedables Fair
  • Saturday 19th – Sunday 20th July: Relay Weekend

August

  • Wrap-up party – dates TBC

September

The home and Garden Expo this year takes place in September
The home and Garden Expo this year takes place in September
  • Tuesday September 16th – Sunday September 28th: 2014 SL Home and Garden Expo
  • Making Strides Against Breast Cancer

December

  • Friday December 5th – Monday December 15th: 2014 Xmas Expo and Breedables Fair.

Additional Notes

There will be no Teams ‘R’ Us events in the 2014 season. Instead, multi-team events will be held during the kick-off weekend and the Halfway There Journey week. There may also be opportunities for team-funding at the various major events within the season (FFL, Fantasy Faire, the SF Conventions, etc.). If so, details will be announced as these events approach.

Relay Rap  / T1 Radio will again be the official broadcaster for the season, and can be found at  T1radio.com.  The first Relay Rap broadcast for 2014 will take place on February 2nd, as noted above. Those wishing to listen to broadcasts through the season can do so by adding T1’s stream (http://t1radio.serverroom.us:8242) to their land’s media settings or via their own media player.

Further updates to come as news is made available.

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