Relay For Life of Second Life 2012

by Vickie Maidstone

I have been very busy with the ongoing, Relay for Life of Second Life 2012!! and yes it's that time of year where myself and members of the Second Life community gather together for four and a half month's of fund raising for the American Cancer Society search for a cure for cancer. A little bit of history as to how I became involved is in order so here we go, in 2007 a friend of mine Jezebel Marlin decided she wanted to form a team. she named the team Friends Fighting Cancer and thru an invitation I was invited to join. that first year saw us doing events, having dances and some other activities to raised funds for the American Cancer society and we did well when it was over.

I went on to stay with this team of very close friends as team hostess and worked my way along side with them to help raise funds,in 2008. In 2009, an oppurtunity came for me to become a mentor to teams that were forming and in helping them get set up with the tools they needed to fund raise successfully. This job was one of the high lights of my relay experience as I had previous training in leadership that came in handy for when I needed to work with each team. 2011 saw me take on a different role as I became a back up mentor when other mentors needed a break and at one point I had twenty one teams to work with, most mentors had ten or twelve but with my experience I could handle more and not have a problem.

This year sees me in an administrative role as I have sixteen mentors to work with and to watch over as a mother hen would and I keep a careful eye out for them as they work with their teams during the course of the fund raising season.

A Brief History of Relay For Life of Second Life

Relay For Life of Second Life started in 2005 with six sims and 315 people that relayed for a full twenty four hour period. In the years since then it has grown to it's present state of over fourty sims and over two thousand people, and has since it's inception donated over 1.2 million dollars USD. This year we are looking to break the all time record again for a single season fund drive to which we were told just get out there and fund raise like there's no tomorrow, so far we have raised $110,000USD, if not more.

For me, I have enjoyed relaying, I have a hope for a future with no cancer. I have a hope that one day very soon it will be announced that a cure has been found and that there will be no more suffering from this disease. I hope and pray it will be very soon. As much as I can say I have been doing what the community of relayers at large is doing, relaying for a cause I believe in, relaying for a world free of cancer. Relaying for you, your families and friends just I like do here in the US.

In the past few month's I have been blogging about my relay experience on my own blog page to which I will provide a link to for your reading pleasure and is:

http://vickiemaidstone.wordpress.com/2012/03/13/reflecting-on-time/

Images by Ishtarangel Michelin, used with permissions