Relay for Life in Second Life raises US$200K in 24 hour event

Some of the organizers of SL Relay for Life at the closing ceremonies. From L-to-R: Pituca Fairchang, Garth Fairchang, Stingray9798 Raymaker, and Fayandria Foley.

I just teleported into the closing ceremony of the 2008 Second Life Relay for Life, a yearly fundraiser for the American Cancer Society that keeps getting better and better.  The organizers announced that this year 1,000 people and 89 teams participated in the Relay in the last 24 hours.  (This more than doubles the 40 teams that participated last year!)  The total funds raised so far is a remarkable $51,000,000 linden dollars which translated to more than US$200,000!

Beyond the funds, everywhere I went throughout the sims, I ran into pockets of people sharing stories about people they had lost to cancer, or their own struggle with the disease, and their commitment to help find a cure.  And the sharing went beyond the metaverse, with SLCN.tv doing a live video broadcast from Second Life to the web along with a text chat that went from Second Life to the web and back.  Great work, by SLCN.tv, as usual.

You can still visit over the next few days the 30 beautiful sims created just for the Relay.  Head to Heroes 1 (teleport link) to the starting line of the relay, put on your best running shoes (or skates or jetpack) and head out!  And of course you should continue to contribute, either in-world or on the web.

Congrats to all the organizers, team leaders and army of volunteers for showing the potential of virtual worlds for awareness raising, support and fundraising.  Simply amazing.