Hippy purists beware: The Second Life Relay for Life

(Grace, this post is a little tribute for you!)

My first exploration of the virtual world phenomenon Second Life at age 16 will always be in my memory. It was the moment in which all the things I had assumed not just about the world of gaming, but about technology, aesthetics and even metaphysics, crushed under the weight of an experience I never thought I’d have in life. But that’s a story for another post.

Now, when we go into the Second Life and activism discussion, most of the quasiphilosophical problems that arise in any digital media activism will inevitably pop up. For some, activism in Second Life is a waste of resources, and typical of neoliberal hipsters who want to feel like they’re doing good while they play with pixels. For others, Second Life is the one platform that will save the world of do-gooding in the 21st century. Both positions can do with a bit more nuance.

Now, many have spoken about this, so I’ll take this opportunity to give my post a more lively topic: one of the well-regarded successes of activism in Second Life, Relay for Life. The reason why I think it’s important to talk about it is precisely that I think that it challenges both mentioned positions.

Relay for Life’s permanent space in Second Life.

I first heard about Relay for Life from my friend Grace when we were both teenage Second Lifers. She volunteered to run the RFL events for the teenagers for the first time back in 2007, and she says that’s what got her involved. “It just became my thing”, she told me last weekend in the 2011 Relay for Life event. Fast forward to this day, she is on her way to becoming a professional photographer (offline!), and she is Captain for the Team Young Adults in the 2011 SL Relay for Life.

Grace has lost loved ones to cancer, but that’s not the only thing that keeps her so involved. She says doing all the work she does brings her sanity, satisfaction. Now, there’s something I’m sure the non-Second-Lifer readers will wonder: what exactly does she do?

Grace, or Saeriah Thei, late on Saturday night in the musical events she planned for the young adults who participated in Relay for Life.

She organizes virtual fundraising events. Now, the magic in this place is that virtual money doesn’t remain virtual: there is a conversion rate between virtual money and USD, which makes all of this worthwhile. In the same way offline event organizers have to tackle through tons of to-dos to make it all happen (getting people to attend, finding the right microphone for the speakers, making sure snacks will be served), Grace and her team have dealt with all sorts of online preparations: building the actual venues, recruiting musicians to perform in the concerts, setting up donation boxes, fixing all streaming and technical problems, doing a huge outreach, and even designing pixel T-shirts that avatars can wear to spread the word around. She says her network of talented friends has been helpful in all these tasks!

A young volunteer used her outstanding (real life) voice to sing during the fundraiser.

But Grace isn’t the only one devoting days of her (also real) life to the cause. There are over 140 teams raising funds this year, all of them congregated around different themes. “Fashion For Life”, “Giant Snail Relay”, “Aether Chrononauts”, “DJs 4 Life”, “Goreans in Relay for Life”… All of these teams volunteer time and resources many weeks before the event takes place, and then throughout the continuous 24 hours that it lasts. Cancer never sleeps, and they don’t either when it’s time for Relay for Life.

There are hundreds of fundraising activities taking place on the event weekend and throughout the entire fundraising season (I’m not kidding you: anything you can imagine, from virtual auctions to virtual pirate battles! I repeat: VIRTUAL PIRATE BATTLES!), so this is only a small glimpse of the virtual and offline stories that come together to battle cancer.

It all begins for these volunteers when it is time to actually make a decision to join the Relay for Life, come together in groups, and recruit others to increase their force. I came across a good example of this during the event when, while I took my avatar through the signature Relay for Life walk, I was cheered on by members of The Walking Tall for a Cure team. This is what they mean by Walking Tall, by the way:

This group came together in a Second Life creative community (the Lollygaggers, they like to call themselves, and they are very close to the Hobos). Some time ago, they thought it would be nice to support events by attending in stilts, providing free entertainment, etc. Relay for Life is no exception, especially when many members (in their first lives) have lost close ones to cancer. They were cheering early Sunday morning (when I passed), and they had been up since the day before doing so to raise funds.

The biggest group of cheerleaders I saw in the event had a similar story. The Steelhead Salmons RFL team originated four years ago in a Victorian steampunk community of Second Life; its members decided to support the cause because “everyone in the community had been touched by cancer in some way”.

But getting together and planning what is going to happen is only the beginning. Most of these teams, apart from the support they give on the day of the main event, actually plan many fundraising activities to be done throughout the season… And, in Second Life, this means offering services for which other people will pay for. Virtual clothing designers, entertainers, programmers – all of the teams relied on the work of those who’d use fun methods to get others to donate to the cause, engage them in it and spread awareness about it.

And then there is the bit I personally enjoy the most in this fundraiser: the BUILDS!!!

(Chirp chirp.)

Builds, you wonder? What do those have to do with a fundraiser if you don’t work for Emergency Architects?

Well, here’s the thing: in Second Life, anybody can become an architect, or a designer, or a creative cookie in general. Now, that’s not to say that it isn’t obvious that First Life skills (or lack thereof) transfer to avatars. Do I build anything? No, thank you very much.

But the New Babbage RFL Team is full of people as talented as whoever invented my favorite pieces of Real Life design. As part of their team efforts, they built…

A steampunk factory of Hope, ladies and gentlemen! And a stunning one, at that!

The manufactory line starts here…

It continues along the perfectly constructed, dynamic steampunk pieces the New Babbage Engineers devised…

And, soon, the ready products are picked up…

And taken for worldwide delivery (by being dropped in the center of this reactor).

I love Second Life designers as much as I love apple pie à la mode and falafel together. I really do.

But I’m sure many wonder what the point of all this eyecandy is. Well, here’s the thing: fundraising is done with activities that provide entertainment to those who will donate. In the case of SL, builds like this provide it. I have spent more hours during the last year admiring Second Life eyecandy than watching TV.

Building is also a big part of the main event, in which the Relay for Life signature walk is enacted virtually. Teams volunteer to create a path for the virtual runners. I myself did the virtual walk for hours, feeling like it was minutes, thanks to the beautiful sights in every corner.

In case these sights weren’t enough by themselves to encourage people to join, the organizers planned different themes for each hour of the event. From masquerade and ridiculous hats to curlers and jammies. Avatars in bikinis, pirate suits, knights…

Let’s not forget that something this big, even if it occurs in a virtual reality platform, needs people to think big strategy kind of thoughts. Volunteers who did the PR for the event, managing the website, the Twitter feed and a Facebook group whilst creating press materials… Volunteers struggling with all the technical issues and last-minute changes (Grace confessed she slept about five hours the week before Relay, as she had to coordinate the building of an area for the teenage volunteers)… It really is not just virtual reality. Behind each avatar, there is a human being devoting time and resources to the cause.

Now, all of this is a big overview of what happens in the Second Life Relay for Life, but I think the biggest part of the story is all the life stories that come together for it. Since the days I left the Teen Grid, I never felt a sense of community as strong in Second Life as the one I felt last weekend in Relay. Strangers giving words of support to those wearing ‘Caregiver’ and ‘Fighting it’ tags, people comforting those who dedicated lamplights to their lost ones, people spending weekend hours online to help a cause raise money. Many will agree that the most emotional moment of the event is the Luminaria ceremony on Saturday night, in which real (and inevitably shaky) voices are heard thanks to the sound streams on Second Life, reading aloud the messages of the people behind the avatars who have lost their loved ones (both met offline and through Second Life) to cancer.

But I know the pragmatists of do-gooding aren’t into touchy feely stories that don’t provide metrics, so let’s instead talk numbers. Do all of these hours of work amount to something in this regard? You’ll be the judge: this year, the Second Life Relay for Life raised $373,098 (real dollars), and, since it started in 2004, it’s raised over a million dollars for the American Cancer Society. These figures only consider the money donated via the Second Life Relay for Life; it doesn’t count the contributions of people who decided to donate offline thanks to their involvement online.

Needless to say, I am very moved and inspired by this achievement, and I’m already looking forward to the 2012 Relay. But I think it’s fair for Grace and everyone to catch a few well-deserved zZzs.

Congratulations, Relayers. I am sure your loved ones would be really proud of you. I know I am.