By DrFran Babcock
This is a true
story about a Relay for Life Camp that came together in through the
input, creativity, and hard work of a true team.
When the Status Quo Gets Disrupted
Relay Wizards
for Spunky Team Captain Shawna Montgomery planned for her team’s sixth
year without a care. She had a solid team, and a builder who was
renowned throughout Second Life™ for her skills: Anhayla Lycia. Last
year, Anh won the award for the Best Designer Build during 2012’s Relay
for Life. So, everything was sweet. That is, until the Relay Committee
asked Anhayla if she could do a second build, because they had
another parcel available. Shawna did what any competent leader would do,
and asked Anh if it would help not to have to build The Relay Wizards
campsite this year. That was when she looked at her team roster and
decided to ask if I could build the campsite. Oh, and the sims will
close to building on July 10th, less than two weeks from the day the request was made!
Putting Together the Team
This was a
situation that called for quick action. Team member, HALEY Salomon,
skilled motivator, but not a builder, volunteered team member Thickbrick
Sleaford to provide scripting services. I remembered that my friend
Catboy Qunhua was running around SL10B volunteering to help people the
whole time. I figured I would ask him.
The hard part
was to decide what to do, and I thought about it, until it hit me. I was
still thinking about how wonderful SL10B had been, and what wonderful
exhibits I had seen. Chaffro Shoomaker had given me a tour of the Raglan
Tinies build, and I was struck by the moving platform they had in the
air, that Chaffro told me had been scripted by the amazing Panacea
Pangea, and used a new function Linden Lab had added to the Linden
Scripting Language (LSL)—one that allowed a prim to move an avatar just
by standing on it!
Here I Come to Save the Day!
Catboy said yes
to my request to build, and quickly demonstrated his Mighty Mouse
gesture of rescue: "Here I Come to Save the Day." Thickbrick was excited
to try the new scripting function. We decided we wanted to do something
that related to history, because it was the 100th anniversary
of the creation of the American Cancer Society, and something that used
the people mover script. That was how the design for the dioramas
throughout history was born. I did a schematic, and we met. Before the
meeting was over, Thickbrick had consulted the LSL Wiki, and constructed
a large moving walkway. Catboy and I consulted on the history we wanted
to highlight, divided up the work, and ran off to build.
Little by
little we constructed the campsite on land set aside on Anhayla’s
island, while she, in turn, worked on her two designer builds for the
Relay track. Catboy worked secretly in an undisclosed location, and then
brought his builds to Anh’s land. Each time he placed another diorama
we gaped in wonder, and cheered our growing creation. Thickbrick’s
moving sidewalk became a sensation. We started to congregate on it,
moving slowly around the growing campsite, chatting, making plans,
arguing over decisions about the build, and coming to see the people
mover as a kind of Town Square.
As we neared
completion we started to encounter a problem. The center of the build
looked very bare, and there were no signs of the mystical and magical
landscaping and objects that typified Anhayla’s camps of the past. We
put our heads together and Shawna, HALEY, Catboy, Thickbrick, and
Anhayla came up with the idea to put all the mystical items in the area
that made up the “donut hole” of the people mover. In this way we
separated the grim reality o f cancer from the more lighthearted world
of dragons and runes—specialties of Anhayla.
Putting It All Together—Telling Stories Camp
I
conceptualized the theme of the build on the basis of the way the build
turned out, and not the other way around, because our time was so short:
Catboy and I on the outside perimeter with our dioramas of history,
separated from the mystical world of Anhayla Lycia by the people moving
circle made by Thickbrick. Telling the story of the history of cancer
and Relay on the outside, and telling stories of magic and mystery on
the inside, as a means of escaping from the relentless woe of the
cancer. Also, the word telling has a few meanings. Telling means to
recount, as in telling a tale or story. Telling, as an adjective means
that a telling story is one that is striking or revealing. The stories
that we hear on T1 Radio, told by survivors and caregivers, are indeed
striking and revealing.
Come visit The Relay Wizards for Spunky campsite at: http://maps.secondlife.com/
Team photo: Left to Right: Catboy Qunhua, Selina Greene, Shawna Montgomery, HALEY Salomon, katfancy Kiergartan, Brokali, and ρєαяℓч (Pearlygurlee Ducatillon)
Team members
missing from photo: Thickbrick Sleaford, Spunky Young, Anhayla Lycia,
Amber DeCuir, Arctic Kas, Silverthorn Karu, Explorer Dastardly, Mickey
Darkward, Orchid Jameson
By DrFran Babcock
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