$233,030 Lindens = $879.66 US
Wow! We did it! We completely surpassed our SL dreams and raised well over the $100,000 Lindens I had predicted and the $50,000 Lindens Blissie had said she'd be happy with. Almost $900 for the American Cancer Society! Hooooo!
I so appreciate everyone who gave up their SL earnings this week, as retailers, as club owners, as disk jockies, as musicians, as dancers, as club goers. Thank you for your amazing generousity to give give give.
Counting up those Lindens after the crowd headed home...
When we started this event I was so excited about it. When I'm excited about something, I can't help it - it spills into every part of my life - RL and SL. I told my colleagues at work I was working on a fundraiser. I told my parents I was working on a fundraiser. Interest and curiosity led to conversations about SL throughout the week.
"Isn't that an online game?" "You've been playing that for a while, haven't you?" "Kim stop talking about those people and things like they are real, you'll get me thinking they are real, and they are imaginary." LOL!
It led to tours of SL at work. Just brief ones where the size of my chest was criticized and admired. I showed off my wardrobe and my beautiful home and island. I connected with some RL contacts online, inworld and shared with them pieces of my SLife providing a tour of our home in Bel Cove. The response from one was "Man, you are into this Hard Core! Did you guys make all this?"
I had one friend say "If I could, I would just write a check - let me know who to write it to." In retrospect, I should have done that. If I would have collected RL funds from them in my informal publicity campaign of excitement about the week, I probably could have brought up our week's total to $1000.
Through all this though, it has brought to light what SL is and can be. It has illuminated the type of person I am, and the types of people I choose to associate with in SL. It takes a team to make something like this happen successfully. It takes creative and organized minds (not necessarily mine - but I'm trying). It takes enthusiasm and passion. It takes ingenuity and generousity, but most of all it takes WORK. Things like this don't happen, and happen successfully without a lot of hard work. These are qualities that transcend SL and show the kind of person you are in RL. You can talk talk talk about doing good things, but it takes work, the kind that makes you roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty, to make something a success.
I am so proud of all the people who helped make this week possible. I'm so so so grateful that Ms. Blissie Boucher had the enthusiasm to give me the gentle nudge to help her. From there it just snowballed. Bigd of course just said you tell me where to be Kim and I'll be there. He knows I know he'll do what it takes - and he did! We have to have quite the coordination efforts on the homefront to pull of such intensive SL activities. We had a week of pizza and he who's (where you find what you're hungry for and eat it), and frozen dinners. My boss at work was generous enough to encourage me enthusiastically to have fun and leave early the night of the concert. The traffic cooperated each night - yes, a shout out to those I-10 driving friends - Thank you!
I knew Blissie knew the real me when I received a note from her one day saying "OMG you are the co-worker who is way on top of email and fills everyone's inboxes aren't you!" I knew SL had taken on my RL personality officially when I was writing notes with bullet points and next steps.
And then, there are those who do business in and out, every day in SL. The DJs, Crighton Johin, who knew exactly how to conduct a date auction and asked me if I had interview notecards to give to those being auctioned off and request their favorite songs. He knew to make an auction schedule and set up a stage to direct attention to. He knew how to send out announcements with attachments. And what he didn't know how to do (like make floating text above a gift box), his RL wife, Jenda did. Jenda Starbrook was a patient soul. I have already blogged about her yesterday. Bigd referred to her as the "Rainmaker" last night after all was said and done. She has an amazing following, she jumped in and created unique gifts to support our event and those who donated, and her little avitar butt brought in over $40,000Lindens for a date. WOWOW!
DJ Borday Moo brought his following and sexy voice to the event. He was able to send out announcements and attract a crowd. He even got naked one night to the tune of some donation subtotal. He is one crazy Moo! Ms. Busybee Beaver donated her BeeHive to house it all all week and put up with my constant questions of "Can we rez this here?" "Do you mind sending this out?" "Do you have a...?" I am hopeful we brought in more club goers to The Bee Hive in days and weeks to come as a result, and more listeners and attendees to Borday and Crighton's events.
"Friendly Fire" performed a first ever live concert event at The Bee Hive this week. Case and MacK's following brought a whole new host of people to the club and gave the donations a huge Hump Day boost! They were the perfect middle-of-the-week ingredient to keep us all going and inspired.
Party Like A Rockstar Event... Where else would you rather be?
So... did we sit on our butts too much this week? Perhaps in SL yes (unless you include all the multitasking it takes to run a house with 4 kids while being logged in for hours on end). Did we show the world there is more to SL than that smut they write about in the NY Times? Well at least in my little world I hope we did!
Relay for Life American Cancer Society will continue to have fundraisers for the next several weeks inworld. People can still come by The BeeHive and donate to the kiosk that Blissie left out. Maybe we even gathered more Lindens overnite. The group charity leaders who visited last night asked us if we could do another one because our week was more successful. Do I dare tell them - wait a few weeks to ask us that? :)
Cancer touches each of us in different ways. I am so blessed to know survivors in my life. Those who have had cancer and battled it successfully. I have also lost loved ones to cancer. It is a horrible monster that must be stopped. If my little piece of SL can help bring some RL dollars to support the cause and the great efforts of the American Cancer Society, I am happy to do it! My dad commented to me spontaneously this week, "Well that's more money than you would bring in just going door to door in your neighborhood!" And, how true that is! I enjoyed the comfort of my family room couch and had fun and still helped in a tiny way.
I hope you will join the effort. Take time to contribute. Donate funds, donate time, or at least encourage others to do so. In a world that thrives on personalities of "Me First" it is refreshing to associate with those who put funds and time and encouragement in front of themselves for a great cause.
I'll step down from the soapbox now with a final "Thank You."
Thank you!
Each of the ribbons had floating text associated with it that was a heartfelt tribute to a friend or family member that had been affected by breast cancer - either as a survivor or sadly, someone who had lost their lives to the disease. It was solemn to just sit and read and reflect.
Bigd even did it with me LOL... but as I am laughing I am reminded that men can also get breast cancer - just fyi. We explored the whole sim. There are lots of meeting facilities there and a conference coming there sometime in June (unless it already happened - couldn't tell). There are also lots of educational pieces on cancer - including video terminals that take you to the American Cancer Society website. 
The most touching pieces of the sim though, are the pieces that are designed to honor the cancer survivors and the memories of those who lost the fight. Bigd and I took some time to soak up some time under the memory tree. Bigd posted a touching note honoring my grandmother who died of ovarian cancer. 
