The 2018 Sunbeamer Campsite

The Relay Weekend is the high point of the Relay for Life fundraiser season. A large number of sims are opened for the month and with the permanent American Cancer Society sim are made into a circular track, with a few sims to the side for activities such as boating, racing, DJ events, and more. The track sims are noted for their builds. Some are special "designer sims." But most are divided up into campsites for the various Relay teams.

Among them in North America Hope is that of the Sunbeamer team. Since their first year in 2013, the team has made a number of builds, in 2014, 2015, 2016 which won an award, and 2017. Now, once again they have a build that represents the fight against cancer and honoring those lost.

I had a few words with Cynthia Farshore, whom with Shockwave Yareach did the majority of work on the campsite, "Shocky helped with the furniture and the coffee house. Rita and Snowy the memorial garden and trees and plants." When I came over, the place was mostly done, but there was still a little to do, "I feel there are more info panels needed on a couple sections but otherwise (it's done)."

Talking about the campsite, Cynthia told me, "When time came that I was going to be the builder I had no idea what to build. How the design came about was in pieces. I just developed it with knowing that I needed to connect the different aspects of cancer fight to one point, the point I chose to be the Relay. So I went to the ACS website and looked at the different areas and came up with the doctors and nurses, transportation provided, the hospital and treatment centers, research and all came to the Relay. At this point I choose to set them in sections around a walkway and each section a mode of transportation assigned that represents the different areas of cancer fight traveling to the same goal to be united in the fight."

The entrance led to a path that led beside a brick wall, with information about cancer beside the path. "With this one you start on the ground and go up as it says the sky's the limit."

"My own thought." Cynthia spoke of this particular display panel.

The end of the path led to a wagon and car, next to a coffeehouse area.

"As we come to be united in relay there the common area is the place all merge in a union of fellowship. Coffee houses are today's general meeting places, much as the taverns were of old."

 The coffeehouse had a copy of the steampunk coffee brewer at Club Cutlass.

Behind the coffeehouse was a memorial garden, with numerous pictures of personalities whom met their end due to the disease, "Along with this we can reflect on the ones we lost in the battle against cancer."

"and sometimes you're surprised."

Sunweaver campsites have always had a pink fox statue in honor of Artistic Fimicloud, a member of the Sumweaver community and Passionate Redheads team, the precursors of the Sunbeamers, who passed away ten years ago. Clicking on the statue gets you a notecard explaining who she was.

Fimi was a good friend and renter on one of my sims for many years.  She lived in her treehouse and had it decorated with artwork, she created.  Fimi was a talented artist and had a gallery here on SL, where she sold her artwork. She also sold her art in RL, and her favorite subject was her beloved Hudson Valley. Each painting also included a hidden pink ribbon, as a reminder of her fight.

Fimi was fun to be around and always up for a good laugh or joke. She was friend to many.

She was a Breast Cancer Survivor, but it came back and the second bout had spread, and was the one that finally took her life. She is sorely missed. Before Fimi passed, over 70 of her SL friends posed for a photo and we sent it to her, so show our LOVE and that she was in our PRAYERS. It is her courage and never give up spirit that drives our team today.

WE RELAY FOR FIMI!  The Pink Fox is her avatar.

The past few campsites have had a prayer tower. Originally created by Becky "Sha" Shamen, this year had a different one by Shockwave, "Shocky changed the design a bit for this year. It spirals."

As in Becky's tower, people can name someone they wish to honor. Then the name floats upward towards Heaven.

Trotting about not far from the coffeehouse near the car was a skunk, "don't get sprayed."

At the end of the tour was the Hope Lodge, "Hope Lodge and lodging program info in here."

The "dummies" were from both Cynthia and Rita, "Even while I was at work this week, I was shopping Marketplace during lunch for the dummy avs. Rita will put out some of hers and that should be enough."

There were more information boards inside, as well as a few vendors for products. Someone had already bought one of the lights, "People are checking out the place already ... well, that's good."

There were also a couple seats next to a fireplace one could sit and chat, or just sit. I noticed the fireplace had Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs on it. Cynthia told me that was Shockwave's doing, "Looks rather old too. Shocky's so can be."

Cynthia would say, "This one was tough cause I had to make a cross-country trip right in the middle of the build time. I worked a few hours a night in motel rooms, using a laptop. I'm used to doing big camp builds on two monitors and a strong computer. (pause) Actually, two computers and four monitors, setup from DJing days. And the final night in a motel the laptop died, must of took a hit somewhere ..."

"I'm happy with how it's worked out. Oh, when I started I was nervous. But I am a bit of an artist, and have stood looking at a blank canvas a couple of times. I don't know it just comes to me. ..."

The Sunweaver campsite is at North America Hope (125/80/23).

Bixyl Shuftan

The Sunbeamer Camp for 2017

By Bixyl Shuftan

The Relay Weekend is the high point of the Relay for Life fundraising season every year, and although some of it's areas are "designer sims," most of what people see on the track are the various exhibits of the teams. Since the members of the team meet up at these places, they've gotten the name "campsites." While some are often nature scenes, often they're buildings or something else.

Made up mostly of members of the former Passionate Redheads when starting out, since 2013 the Sunbeamers, the team of Second Life's Sunweaver community, have been part of the Relay. And every time, several of the people have come together to build an exhibit. Over time, the Newser has written about most of the camps in 2013 (2014 picture), in 2015, and of the 2016 camp which won an award for it's educating the visitors while telling the story of a farmer's daughter discovering she had cancer. So how to follow up on an award-winning build? That was the challenge the team, notably the top builders Shockwave Yareach and Cynthia Farshore faced.

"Shocky was the head builder for this year," Cynthia Farshore told me, saying it was "his idea to make an airport terminal, and he laid out the model on my dinning room table. From that we then took things to a build platform the same size as this camp over (Farshore Field),  about two thousand meters, and began piecing it together. He was able to get the size and placement worked out before it came to here." The camp would be at RFL Celebrate (185/130/22).

Around the main build was a parking lot with a few cars, and a couple airliners and a baggage carrier. The entrance would have people going through a security checkpoint, which included an x-ray machine. Before going in, there was a HUD for a game they could pick up. "Gives a passport," Cynthia told me, "You look for the stamps around the camp, Most are in rooms." One stamp, that of the Sunweavers, was somewhere in the entrance area. Past the entrance, there was a round concourse with a number of rooms around it, as well as one in the center. In each a stamp for the game was placed. Finding all of the stamps would get the resident a small prize.

On the walls were a number of posters of locations, but only a handful were what one would expect to find at a real airport, "In true Sunweaver fashion, we just couldn't put up straight posters." One of New York city was a cartoon picture of someone in a taxi getting robbed and two grinning people looking over a deed to the Brooklyn Bridge. Another showed a "Star Wars" Stormtrooper in an icy place, inviting people to vacation in Hoth. Still another "Greetings from Baghdad" showed a plane dropping a bomb as it flew behind two unknowing tourists. There was also a poster titled "United," which made me think of the airliner which had gotten in trouble a few months ago for forcing a passenger off it's plane. In between the comedy and comedic references were more serious statistics, stating how much money various activities in the treatment of cancer took.

Each of the six rooms represented a real-world location: New York City, Bejing, Rome, Rio de Janeiro, Los Angeles, and Mexico City. In most of the rooms, information about cancer was placed appropriate to the setting. For the traffic scene in New York, there was information about carcinogens. For the sunbathers on the beach in Rio, there was information on skin cancer. For the nude male statues in Rome, there were facts about prostrate cancer. For the food and outhouse in the Mexico area, there was information on colon and rectal cancer.

There were a couple details from previous builds. One was the prayer tower, which launched balloons towards heaven, people able to place names of those they wished to honor. There was also a memorial garden, with a pink fox statue for Artistic Fimicloud, a resident of the Sunweaver community whom had passed away nine years ago. There were a couple smaller pink foxes in the fountain in front of the airport as well, which when clicked gave some information about "Fimi" as she was called.

They were limited with how much could be built, "land is misleading, shows (it) supports 4687, but turns out they limited us to, what is it, 2500? Guess need room for all the million prim furries that will be coming through." Some last minute work on the build, such as placing another couple panels, was postponed until after the judging of the camps due to Cynthia and Shockwave's real-life work schedules, "when I got on I was so tired after doing an all nighter and working all day. Shocky was no better, so we said we're done." Still, they were happy with what they had accomplished. So was team captain Rita Mariner, "I am happy with the way the build came together. I think our builders did a great job and had some fun doing it."

Skylark Lefavre commented, "I think in my own honest opinion this is the best one we did in a long time. Its in it's own rights a competitor, with teams like 'Aliens Love Tatas Too.' It's not only informative and educational, its also entertaining and visual, something you can participate in, almost like a tour. Using the airport take the tour is a nice touch since an airport represents a way into any part of the world it also shows the education of cancer prevention and treatment can reach any place as well."

As it turned out, others would be impressed with the campsite too. It would be awarded second place for "Best Themed Decorated Campsite." Rita was happy, "Second place and fun doing it." Shockwave was very pleased, especially considering the quality of some of the other camps, "Against THIS level of expertise? I'm ecstatic! Couldn't have done it without all of you!"

And so, once again "the little team that could" made a big impact in the Relay for Life in Second Life, thanks in part to the skill and persistence of it's builders.

Addition: Wildstar Beaumont took several pictures of the exhibit, which can be seen here. 

Bixyl Shuftan

RFL Weekend: The Sunbeamer Camp

By Bixyl Shuftan

Every year in July, The Relay for Life in Second Life holds their 24 hour walk event, also known as the Relay Weekend or Relay Walk. Taking place on the American Cancer Society sim and close to forty others which appear just for the event, there are places for live music and DJs, as well as a few full sim, or designer sim, exhibits by noted builders. But the main attraction are the various campsites of the Relay Teams which have a spot on the track, each of which has an exhibit to fit the theme of the year's Relay, this year being "Once Upon a Cure." Most if not all teams have at least reached Bronze Level in fundraising.

Some of the teams represent Second Life communities. This includes the Sunbeamers, the Relay team representing the Sunbeamer/Angel community. Since it's founding, the team has always had a camp at the Relay track. And this year is no exception.

Quite a bit of effort went into building this camp, notably by Cynthia Farshore and Shockwave Yareach, with some help from Rita Mariner and Becky Shamen. Following the theme of the Relay, the camp tells the story of a "poor farmer's daughter" named Elizabeth.

I met up with Rita Mariner, the captain of the Sunbeamer Team, as she was putting on some of the finishing touches.

"Cynthia and I found people," Rita explained of the static figures which had been added since the last time I was here.

"Of course your suppose to read the books as you go."

In the story, Elizabeth loves being out in the sun and getting a tan. One day, a dark spot appears on her skin, and a few days later seems a little larger.

Eventually, Elizabeth heads to the village doctor to have it checked out.

 Not exactly the most comforting sight for a patient.

The doctor gives Elizabeth the bad news: skin cancer.

To get the treatment she needs, Elizabeth heads to the Castle of Hope.

For those wanting a little game, there's a hedge maze.

For solving it, one gets a chest full of coins. One small problem. While the power of SL magic allows you to take a copy, the coins are all melted into one mass. So no free Lindens.

 In front of the exhibit are a few items up for sale by Becky Shamen, the proceeds going to charity.

And then there's the Prayer Tower just to the right of the entrance.

And so there you have it, the camp for this year's track of the Relay Weekend.

RFL Support (18, 136, 23)

"Go Sunbeamers! Go Relay!"

Bixyl Shuftan