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 

What Happened to Aero Pines?

By Bixyl Shuftan

It's been months since we've reported about Areo Pines. This place in Second Life was noted for it's nature scenery, horseback riding, and holding special events across the year, such as it's 9/11 Stairclimb Tribute events and it's Superbowl parties. But over the years, the sims were slowly trimmed back until there were just a few left. It's sad to say that when I went to check up on the place during the Thanksgiving holiday, the place was gone from the map.

When I talked to Aero's former owner, Cindy Bolero, she told me she had turned the place over to someone else in 2015, "and early this year, January I think, she closed the park and redesigned the sims. I was out with eye surgeries n' stuff for a year, and this year been working on CERTsimulator, the FEMA disaster management and practice virtual world I've been working towards for five years."

Besides real life challenges, there were other reasons for her giving up Aero Pines. The money and management was one, "(It) was much work and great expense. ... So many different languages. It was a lot of work to do translations of all our information." But another was the change in the people who were coming over, "We were getting (a) huge amount of visitors in recent years, but it wasn't the same. ... it became mostly men preying on our endless supply of day old females. There was no more community feel, just a meat market." She does still hear from a few friends from previous happier times about the park, but times have changed, "Now I host private VWs profressionaly serving good causes, instead of just playtime."

But Aero isn't completely gone, "I never really announced it closed, but I have announced that its moved." She had gotten a place on the Sinespace grid, and duplicated part of the park there, but it hasn't been worked on in a while, "I haven't had a chance to upgrade it. It's still in winter from 2016. ... there may be a 12th annual Winter Festival if I get time to improve the sinespace version. I have to go on travel this week for a FEMA program management training. So many worlds, so little time. (smile)"

I did take a short trip into Sinespace to check out Aero Pines, or Winter Festival as it's called there. Going about on that virtual world is a bit different than Second Life, but I got there and was able to get a sled ride. But hopping off I was back where I started from. Sinespace takes some getting used to.

Sadly, it looks like a great area in Second Life has now become part of it's past, with that's left of it in another virtual world and pictures on it's Flickr page: https://www.flickr.com/photos/aero_pines_park/

Bixyl Shuftan