Scenes From The Relay Track: Rememberance

 

 From the Sunbeamer camp at RFL Win, a moment to remember friends and family who passed from cancer, Luminaria lit in their memory. 

 

Bixyl Shuftan 

 

Luminara: A Mystical, Self-Discovery, Silent Reflection Sanctuary

Neteral Landar starts of her writing about places in Second Life with Luminaria. Created by Sedona Starchild, the place is described as "a space created with care, where every detail holds a deeper meaning, if you’re open to it." Netera went to look around, and was not disappointed. 

 

Read Netera's story in Places.  

 

Relay Weekend: Day One

 

 Yesterday was the start of the Relay Weekend, with dozens gathering for the opening ceremony. 

 

It went on without a hitch (click here to see the video).

 

 The camps had some great builds.

 

 

 And dozens of Relayers of all kinds went down the track.

 

 

There were some problems with lag, and a sim shutting down, which people had to teleport across.

 

At 9PM SL time was the luminaria ceremony, and activity stopped as people paused and reflected. 

 

 The ceremony was also taped on Youtube, including the release of lanterns (click here to see the video). 

 

From RFL in SL

 More to come.

 

*Addition* For Day Two of the Relay, Click here.  

 

Bixyl Shuftan 

The Relay Weekend: Part One

 

Saturday June 10 was the first half of the Relay Weekend. It started at 10AM with the Committee giving a pep talk to the Relayers, some at the stage, most listening from their team camps.

 

 

At 11 AM was the Survivor and Caregivers lap, or honor lap. And those who know what cancer is like because they either experienced it themselves or cared for someone who has took a walk around the track.

12:30 PM was the Parade of Teams, including that of the neighborhood the Newser office makes its home in, the Suunbeamers. 

The track had many hundreds of avatars, from large ...

to small, all united in a cause, to help stop cancer.

 

The campsites had some impressive sights, such as the double helix tower from the Second Life Cheerleading Squad.

And there was the designer sim by artist Fiona Fei, with the theme being the song "Clouds."

9PM was the Luminaria Hour, when the Relayers paused to reflect on those they lost to cancer. At the ACS sim, paper lanterns went up into the air.

Most would reflect from their camps or where they were on the track when the hour started.

It was quite a day in the first half of what's been described as the most intense 24 hour period in the virtual world every year. 

Go Relay!

Bixyl Shuftan

Reader Submitted: Relaying in Real Life and Virtual Life

 By Bain Finch

My first Relay was in SL 2011. In 2012 I helped bring Relay to IWz. In 2014 I join my local real life Relay group, and been involved with all 3 groups, every year, since. This year, I've pulled back some, and will be the first year, I will not hold any planning group role.

For the most part, both RL and VR Relay are exactly the same. We joke about no bugs, weather, parking, but we do have lag, and we do have sim crossing parties. For the uninitiated, lag is just want it sounds like, so many people are on one sim (server) the system can't keep up. Sim crossing parties slightly different beast. Each sim is a different server, so when moving from sim to sim, your avatar and all you are wearing, needs to be handed off to that new server. When that fails, people pile up at the sim boarder, trying to enter, hence, sim crossing parties.

But you want to know something, the challenge of keep walking the track and dealing with lag and sim crossing issues, pretty much equals the challenges of dealing with weather, and temperatures, while walking, all night long.

The one thing VR Relay has over RL is our campsites builds. Most campsites are season themed, reflecting the Team's reason for Relaying, filled with advocacy information about cancer, health choices, mission messages and more. The biggest uniqueness for Relay on virtual grids is ability to communicate locally, within groups, group notices with tie-ins to social media, blogs and more, right across the whole grid, with the same abilities of using the fundraising dashboard, is virtual Relay's greatest strength. Virtual Relay transforms ones advocacy's signage, into a portals, able to span the world, free of language barriers.

The one marked difference, from the virtual Relay I noticed, was during and following lighting of the Luminaria. Wasn't until my second RL Relay, that I noticed it. Once the Luminaria are lit, the track begins to stratify and have distinct lanes. The outside lanes are for the runners. The middle lanes are for the walkers. But that inside lane, next to the Luminaria, that for the Luminaria shufflers. Moving one step at time, reading each and every Luminaria as they go. Silently advancing, bit by bit, read, step forward, reading the outpouring of love, all mindful of each other, while the walkers are pacing their laps, further out. After a bit, I find myself on that divide between the Luminaria shuffle lanes and the walkers coming at me, just looking at all their faces. Right there, I could see it in their eyes, that quiet, unspoken connection of the heart.

In the wee hours of that night, when I found myself sheltering from the cold and light rain, alone with my thoughts, I found my thoughts bouncing back and forth between all my Relay experiences, that I now realize, Relay's greatest strength is it's sense of community it creates, it's sense of belonging. As an individual, I can build a house. But get a bunch of folks together, and we can move mountains, build a pyramid or a coliseum in short order. Together, we can help each other, each doing our part, all adding together, all the while, reaching our goals.

Lite one candle, you push back the darkness on a space, lite a bunch of candles, you brighten up the whole night.

Bain Finch

Reader Submitted: "Many Faces" of the Relay Luminaria Ceremony

Taken by IshtarAngel Micheline during the Relay Walk's Luminaria Ceremony hour, Darla Domenici and several other child avatars take time to remember friends and family whom passed away. 
Ishtar originally titled this "Many Faces."

The Relay continues today, with the themed laps going on to Noon SL time. But the track and it's builds will be open for a few more days this week. While the sims might be up all week, visit early if you can as some builders may clean up by mid-week.

You can also see SL TV coverage of the Relay on Livestream: (Click Here).