The RFL SL organisers have announced the themes to accompany this year’s laps of the track for the RFL Relay Weekend. Entirely optional (although everyone is encouraged to join in), the themes are a way of adding a little fun and amusement to the walks.

To help spread the word, I’m listing the full set of themes here, including the Celebrate, Remember and Fight Back laps. Note that all times are SLT, and remember the Relay Weekend starts at 10:00 SLT on Saturday July 14th with a special Opening Ceremony.

Hello. This is Laurence Simon (SL: Crap Mariner) of the 100 word stories podcast. Welcome to 2012.

The 100 word stories weekly challenge is where I post a topic to http://podcasting.isfullofcrap.com and then you write and record a story based on that topic.

The topic of the next Weekly Challenge is “Life”

Want to give it a shot? Send an email to isfullofcrap (at) gmail.com with the subject of WEEKLY CHALLENGE and the following:

• The text of your 100 word story on the topic
• Your site’s URL, if you have a site and aren’t ashamed to share it
• A topic for the next Weekly Challenge
• And, if you can, a recording of your story (and any shameless plugs) in MP3 format

Oh, and everything’s due by the morning of July 15th (Sunday) when I put the episode together.

If you hate the sound of your voice or can’t record your story for some reason or another, go ahead and send the text of the story in anyway. someone will record it for you.

However, I think you’re going to want to record it, because this week, it’s special: It’s the RELAY FOR LIFE 100 WORD STORIES WEEKLY CHALLENGE CHALLENGE:

You see, the Second Life Relay For Life is taking place the weekend of July 14th, and I like to come up with unusual ways to raise awareness and funds for Relay.

So, here’s this year’s challenge: Send a story for this 100 Word Stories Weekly Challenge, I’ll donate 1 dollar.

Yes, I will give Relay For Life (through the Relay Wizards For Spunky Team) $1USD for each person that sends in a recorded story (or stories) on the topic of “Life” for the July 15th 100 word stories weekly challenge. I will donate up to $100USD.

You must record a story or arrange for someone to record it for you to be a part of this additional fundraising challenge. Stories without recordings do not count towards the fundraising challenge, but will be included in the episode.

If you have any questions about this, email me at isfullofcrap (at) gmail.com, or send an IM to me at “Crap Mariner” in Second Life.

Thank you, and as always, keep it brief. (Oh, and GO RELAY!)

Posted on behalf of Crap Mariner, poster image by Tish Coronet. So, get your story hats on and see what you can come up with in 100 words! Remember to record it and e-mail the text and recording to Crap at the address above

With SL9B now behind us and July opening before us, Second Life moves towards the central event of the Relay For Life in SL season: the Relay weekend.

This year, the weekend will take place over the 14th and 15th of July, and will feature 36 regions of campsites and five regions set aside for events. As with previous years, the regions will feature the Relay Track, giving participants the opportunity to wall through the regions, seeing the wide diversity of campsites and builds, and donate to RFL SL.

Events are still being planned, but the broad outline of activities have been announced:

Saturday July 14th:

• 10:00: Opening Ceremony
• 11:00: The first lap of the Relay is a Survivor / Caregiver honour walk – please line the track and celebrate our heroes.
• 21:00: REMEMBER – The Lunimaria Ceremony: a solemn occasion in remembrance of those and their loved one who have lost the battle against cancer or who are still battling it. The sims will be darkened. there will be readings and inspirational music. All are invited to participate and asked to walk the track in silence

Sunday July 15th: 

• 06:00: FIGHT BACK: collect a RFL Hope Cape and Fight Back Flag and join-in pledging to save a life this year – your own, a family member, a friend or that of someone you don’t even know as yet
• 10:00: The closing ceremony: celebrate and pay tribute to what has been accomplished and all that RFL in Second Life stands for and has achieved over the years.

To date, RFL SL has raised over $1.5 million dollars since 2004, with almost $300,000 having been raised through events already held in SL this year.

Related Links

• RFL SL blog
• RFL SL website
• RFL USA (American Cancer Society)
• RFL UK (Cancer Research)

This weekend will see the “main event” for this year’s Relay For Life activities in Second Life, around which events have been running since March 12th.

Relay For Life is the signature event of the American Cancer Society, and has been active and growing  in Second Life for 7 years. The very first Relay For Life in Second Life (RFL SL), held in 2005 raised almost $5,000 USD for the American Cancer Society, and was attended by a few hundred avatars. In 2010, over $220,000 was raised across the Grid. Events held this year have so far raised of $300,000, bring the total raised over the last 7 years to over $1 million even before the official weekend of festivities kicks-off – a staggering and impressive figure. The event this year is themed on “Seasons of Hope”.

This weekend will see the opening of the official Relay For Life sims, which are packed with information and will play host to a world of events and activities designed to be fun, and to give us all a further opportunity to support the work of the American Cancer Society.

The Events and Activities

The weekend kicks-off at 10:00 SLT on Saturday 16th July with an opening ceremony, which will be followed at 11:00 by the Celebrate survivors / care-givers honour walk along the RFL SL track – and everyone is invited the line the track and celebrate with these remarkable people.

At 21:00 SLT will be the Luminara Ceremony –  a solumn reflection with readings and inspirational music; sims are darkened for in remembrance of those and their loved ones who have lost their battles to cancer or are still battling it. Again, all are invited to participate and asked to walk the RFL SL track in silence.

Sunday the 17th will see the Fight Back event starting at 06:00 SLT. Pick up your specially made RFL HOPE Cape and Fight Back Flags – available at the Relay Stations,  and join in and make a fight back pledge to save a life this year; your own, a friends, a family member, or someone you don’t even know yet.

Finally, at 10:00 SLT will see the closing ceremony and tribute to all this year’s RFL SL has achieved.

All of these events can be reached via the Relay for Life Welcome Centre.

The activities supporting the weekend are spread across several sims, as follows:

RFL Treatment

The RFL SL autumn / fall events, comprising:

• Live music
• Luge / bobsleigh
• Ice fishing
• Snail racing
• Shopping hamlet

RFL Volunteer 

The RFL SL spring activities, comprising:

• Country music
• Scavenger hunt
• Raffle
• Breedable auction
• Live & silent auctions
• Bull riding

RFL Wish

• DJ stage and hanging gardens
• Art show and sale
• Four Seasons Theatre – featuring Alice In Wonderland, short plays, machinima productions & tribute bands

RFL Contemplation

The Seasons of Hope water park, featuring:

• Jules Verne submarine ride
• Mermaid Cove sandcastle & cabana area featuring reggae DJs
• Surfer’s cove
• Water rides

RFL Reflection 

• Pirate village
• Naval battles
  
• Treasure island
  
• Sailing marathon
  
• Yacht club
  
• Charter ferry to the other water activities
• Fishing
  
• Gypsies and mermaids 

The Welcome Centre and RFL Track

The welcome centre comprises a circular area and flags from the nations of the world, together with a range of information boards that provide more background on RFL, the weekend and the track itself. It operated on a one-way basis, with the direction you should take to work your way around the boards clearly marked. Make sure you pick up the goodies on offer – the RFL guide, pedometer, etc.

The track itself (reached via a teleport point at the welcome centre), runs through some 34 sims (not including all of the events sims mentioned above), divided into the four seasons: spring, summer, autumn (/fall) and winter. It is here that people can cheer on the participants in the Celebrate walk, and join in the Luminara Ceremony and Fight Back walk. As well as the major events, there will also be themed walks around the track, offering people the opportunity to join in activities in fancy dress, etc.

There are a few simple rules associated with the track: it is a one-way circuit, and slower walkers should keep to the right, please move off the route if you stop to chat or go afk, don’t bring pets that can wander randomly, etc. A full set of the rules is available at the welcome centre.

The route is lined with donation boxes (this is about raising money, remember!), as features displays and builds put together by the teams participating in this year’s event, which you can explore as you go. With so many sims, region crossings might be an issue, especially if things get busy (to say nothing of the risk of individual sims being down unexpectedly. This has been catered for as far as possible by sim boundaries being clearly marked on the track itself, each of which has a traffic light indicator for the sim ahead: red indicates the sim ahead if either full (avatar-wise) or offline; amber indicates it is subject to heavy use and extreme lag; green indicates all should be OK. However, even if the light for the sim ahead is green, if you can see a lot of folk on one of the walks, you should still approach each boundary with caution to minimise rubber-banding.

The RFL Youthful sim, just off the main track, will be featuring events for younger members of Second Life, including:

Saturday 16th:

• 10.00-12.00 SLT: Opening and kick-off party
• 12.00-13.00 SLT: Morgan Canare
• 13:00-14:00 SLT: Tallyesin Resident
• 15:00-17:00 SLT: Doctor Who themed party
• 17:00-18:00 SLT: JennaSue Crosby
• 20:00-21:00 SLT: LoneWolf55 Genesis
• 21:00-22:00 SLT: Halloween Costume Hour
• 23:00-01:00 SLT: Winter Formal Dance

Sunday 17th:

• 08:00-09:00 SLT: Brett Hansome
• 10:00-11:00 SLT: Closing Ceremonies

Note that further youth events may also take place.

All-in-all, RFL SL offers a magnificent range of displays, activities and events, all in the name of a very worthy and international cause: the fight against cancer. With so much to see and do, I very much hope that all of us can find time to walk the track, enjoy what is on offer and give whatever we can – and don’t forget to visit the event website.