Commentary: Of RFL's Team Sunbeamer's Folding

 

By Bixyl Shuftan

 

Late last month, Rita Mariner, the captain of the Relay for Life in Second Life team that I am in, the Sunbeamers, passed away. She had been battling stage four cancer, and the fight ended one month into the six she had been told she had left. 

Rita had been in the hospital much of this year, and it was up to High Sunbeamer Cynthia Farshore, with the help of Shockwave Yareach to lead the way most of this year's Relay season. And like the past few years on paper we did well, reaching Ruby Fundraising Level and once again on the top dozen teams. 

But with the death of our captain, it was time to take stock of our situation, and Cynthia Farshore decided it was best to close the team. The team wouldn't be the same without her, and from her point of view there weren't enough active participants. 

It is a decision that I support.

The team has gone far in it's thirteen years. And Cynthia and Shockwave have outdone themselves time and time again. But over time, the number of active participants has shrank. Many such as Allieara Snoodle, Jessicabelle Dayafter and Zorro have passed away. Others have had real-life demands and illnesses take up their time so they can't really participate any more (though they wish they can someday). And some have confided to me that Rita hasn't always been the best person to work with, so they took their Relaying talents elsewhere. We have had a few people join over time, but due to the reasons I mentioned either left or stopped. 

And so rather than let the team fade into a shadow of itself, it is time to retire the banner and have things close with our last season ending with a bang. We've accomplished much, raising millions of Linden dollars, winning a few other awards, and of course many memories of comradery and spirit.

I will miss the Sunbeamers. One of the Relay's mottos is "we put the fun in fundraising." And that the Sunbeamers have done in spades. Taking off where it's predecessor team the Passionate Redheads left off, we did plenty. We did lots of funny "Bid Mes." I would grin whenever Rita went pink because of one, her growling in mock irritation. There were my Million Linden avatar challenges, which saw me as the Rita Clone. There were Shockwave's bumper cars and bicycle blimp races. There were Cynthia's air shows. There was the line of Sunbeamer's in 60s fashion dancing away on stage at the Relaystock. And of course Cynthia's campsites at the Relay Weekend with our team holding our banner high while we walked laps around the track. 

Now, they are happy memories that will never be repeated. 

The few of us still active will continue to Relay. Cynthia and Shock will continue on with Team ACTS, which they've already been members of. Myself, I don't know yet. Perhaps I will find another team. Perhaps continue on as an independent. We will see.

Just as Artistic Fimicloud continued to inspire the Sunbeamers, Rita can inspire the other teams to continue to Relay, to get to the one day cancer is no longer a death sentence or a sentence to years of medical harship, but an easily treatable condition greeted no longer with fear, but annoyance. .

Bixyl Shuftan 

Commentary: Once Upon a Cure

By Becky "Sha" Shamen

At a recent meeting of the Sunbeamers Club, Rita Mariner announced the theme of the 2016 RFL will be "Once Upon A Cure". For this writer, the theme is perfect, for reasons that follow.

I am a member of two SL groups, dedicated to helping find a cure for cancer. In "Sunbeamers" the goal is to gather donations, for use in cancer research. In the "Second Rife" group, the goal is to inform the public of alternatives to conventional treatment.

EVERYTHING that exists, in the world of form, was first an image in a thinking mind. Like it or not, any pictures we keep in our minds will draw that thing into our envinronment, as if by magic. This magic becomes super powerfull, when the same image is in the minds of many. Now, follow me in your imagination.

RFL teams are challenged to come up with fairy tale elements, that promote the curing of cancer. Our group, as it's centerpiece, could have a magnificent, steampunk machine, with lots of moving dials, gears and other parts. In front of the machine, we see a small platform. When clicked on, the platform puts you in a pose, bathes you with rainbow light and puts an object in your inventory, called "rainbow torus."  When it's worn, it makes a spinning rainbow, around your av, as shown in the above picture. In theory, this spinning rainbow is a protective ring that keeps cancer out. Here's the good part; there is no mental image for the word NOT, so it doesn't matter if our fairy tale machine really works. What our machine really does is churn out a stream of people that are presenting a symbolic IMAGE of [rainbow/cure]. Even those not wearing them will learn the symbol. With a positive image, over the rainbow,pot of gold sort of thing, planted in the minds of thousands, we now have a super powered force, that will hasten the true cure to enter our world. We are turning a fairy tale into real life science.

When the cure is manefest, it is simple and inexpensive. They'll even make apps for your phones and computers. Nobody will want the expensive surgeries and toxic chemicals. I now return your imaginations to you. These ideas may or not not be those of the newspaper and it's sponsors. It's all just my opinion of what would be a fun and useful adventure in Second Life.

Sha

Editor's Note: The article has been edited from the original.