By Bixyl Shuftan,
Team Diabetes has gotten a sterling reputation over the years for raising money for the American Diabetes Association and donating everything they raise. But there was an incident recently that appears like someone was taking advantage of the organization's good name and the generosity of it's donators.
On December 31, there was
an announcement by John Brianna (johannes1977 Resident) on the Team Diabetes blog that on the day before, "the owners of the Land of the Rings Breedables Auction spammed our group (of) their event and stated that their raffle was in support of Team Diabetes of Second Life." The people in question would say they had raised over 100,000 Lindens, but Team Diabetes had yet to see any of it, "we strongly encourage you to inquire where your donations went."
I contacted Team Diabetes about the matter, and was answered by Vee Tammas Shocker (Veruca Tammas). She told me most of what she knew was explained in the blog post. She did go on to say she tried contacting the owner of Land of the Rings Breedables, ϮŁσrίŁуηη ŞŧαrşíđєrϮ (LoriLynnGrimes Resident), "but she muted and blocked me." Before that, she had been told to talk to Oenneo Resident, the co-owner, but "I haven't gotten one response at all." She told me that there was a breedables group that was raising funds for Team Diabetes, but it was a different one: OYO Breedables. Vee described them as, "the OYO Breedable people who have been lovely and nothing but open, honest and aboveboard."
"I tell you Bix it's all fishy to me, this other group," Vee told me, " ... it was wrong to advertise it as a Team Diabetes event. I feel horrible for the people who attended and, if as they claim, gave 100,100 lindens, cause they thought it went to Team Diabetes." She added, "Lori sent a screaming note to John saying they didn't know where to get kiosks and then stated blaming OYO Breedables etc. who had nothing to do with them. ... about the notice on our website, how dare we, etc." She clarified by "screaming" she meant the note was entirely in capital letters, "come on, we have an office at NonProfit Commons and anyone can get a kiosk. .. They could have even gone to our office and dumped the money in that kiosk there."
Oenneo Residen't display name is "ϮƝЄƠ ƬӇЄ0ƝЄ ԼƖƠƝӇЄƛƦƬ ƓƛԼƛҲƳϮ", and in his profile (in all caps), he describes himself as an "untamable, unchangeable, unforgetable, dark, mysterious, enterpeneur extrordinare," and besides being co-owner of Land of the Rings Breedables, he owns another line, Galaxy Breedables. I sent him a message asking him about the Land of the Rings Breedables Auction. There was no reply.
In the meantime, Team Diabetes has changed it's kiosks to off-season ones, so even though the holiday events are done, people can still donate to them. For more information on the group, check out their website at:
https://teamdiabetessl.org/ .
Bixyl Shuftan
