By Bixyl Shuftan
Relay Weekend 2020 was quite an event. And the fifty sim track it took place on had many places. This included the campsites of a number of teams. Some teams were making their first or second appearance. Others had appeared year after year. Among the latter were Team Sunbeamers.
Since it's founding in 2013, the Sunbeamers have been a top-performing team, and have always had a campsite. The one from 2016 got the first place Cancer Education Awareness Award. The one from last year was a train station and train track that took people around information boards describing the medical treatment of cancer across history.
After having clawed it's way to Sapphire-level fundraising, past 750,000 Linden dollars, the team was a bit tired. But it still wanted to do a good job with the camp. The idea was a visually attractive place that both informed and allowed those stopping by to relax. Cynthia Farshore, Shockwave Yareach, Skylark "Snowbuns" Lefavre, and team captain Rita Mariner took part in the building.
Near the team sign was the pink fox statue, representing Artistic Fimicloud, or "Fimi" as she was affectionately known. Fimi was a resident of the Sunweaver Estates, where most of the Sunbeamer team make their homes in Second Life, whom passed away in 2008.
The most visible part of the campsite from the road was the "Gameonopoly Hotel Souvenir and Coffee Shop," which looked like a giant Monopoly game red hotel piece.
Inside, one could order a cup of coffee, from Shockwave Yareach's steampunkish coffee machine.
Or one could get a bottle of
Just beside the red building was the rest and relaxation area.
It had lounge chairs, campfire, and barbecue (with real meat for the carnivores and soy for the herbivores).
Me trying out the lounge chairs. At the time this and many other pictures were taken, I was blue for a week to honor a pledge if the team hit Sapphire rank, which it did.
The main part of the campsite was the game board.
It was an obvious knock-off of the Monopoly game. But it was tweaked to reflect the Relay, such as "Go to X-Ray" instead of "Go to jail," "Mammogram Avenue," and more. Instead of "Boardwalk," there was "Cancer Free."
Another major part was the Memorial Garden, featuring a number of notable personalities whom have passed away from cancer over the years.
Cancer is not a simple disease, but can take many forms. While lung and breast cancer get the most attention, it can appear most anywhere on the body: skin, stomach, esophagus, brain, colon, bladder, ovaries, male organs, and other places.
Not everyone honored at the campsite had died from cancer. Two people close to the team, John White and ComCat Fenstalker had passed away in the past year due to heart disease.
Not far from the entrance was a glowing tesseract, made by Shockwave.
Around the game board were more signs with more information on cancer.
By these signs were some flowers arranged to spell key words.
In the back of the camp was a garden area, with a couple smaller lounge chair areas.
On the Relay Weekend of Saturday June 6 and Sunday June 7, the camp was among many the Relayers walked by.
One of a few pictures taken at the group photo showup on Tuesday June 9. Unfortunately Kylee Gracemount and Matt Carlton couldn't make it over.
Because many of the items in the build were "no-copy," as the camp takedown was originally going to take place after the Flood Party on Wednesday June 10, the Sunbeamer camp was taken down on in the late afternoon. Just as the last pieces were being taken up, word began going around that the time the Relay sims would remain up for a while longer. So there would be a green space to mark where the camp used to be.
It was a great camp by a great team in a great season for the Relay for Life in Second Life.
"Go Sunbeamers! Go Relay!"
Bixyl Shuftan
