“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” ~ Margaret Mead
Fashion for Life has ended for this year, rather triumphantly and successfully. We have many people to thank.
Thank you first of all to the many people who visited the Fashion for Life sims. You came to shop, to donate, to enjoy the beauty that over 200 content creators in Second Life created and donated, and many of you walked off with pieces of that content, able to enjoy them again and again as you make your way through SL. You added more than 5.3 million lindens to the bottom line for Relay for Life, but even more importantly…
Without knowing, you gave someone strength, you gave someone encouragement, you gave someone congratulations, and you gave someone hope. Thank you!
It has meaning. It does good. Per the American Cancer Society, “There has been remarkable progress in reducing cancer death rates in the United States. Between 1990 and 2007, the most recent year for which mortality data are available, overall cancer death rates decreased by about 22% in men and 14% in women, translating to the avoidance of 898,000 deaths from cancer.” We saved someone’s life, somewhere.
I promised I would dress up as a flying pig if we reached a goal of 5.25 million. We reached and surpassed it and we had fun! We succeeded!
More importantly, though, our metric for success needs to go beyond the money we made–it should be how much we gave people hope or comfort by simply putting our hearts into doing something we love and doing it with good intent.
Cancer can seem like a diagnosis without hope; we want to give even the smallest bit of hope we can.
Please read below the kudos to all who donated their time, their efforts, their vision, and their good will—it’s a considerable list so in between I will hopefully make you giggle with photos of my porcine self on the sims.
First, thank you to the SL Relay for Life folks who provided our support, kiosks, raffle vendors, logo and pep talks while they were gearing up for their own season. Stingray9798, MamaP, Dwen, JB—thank you so much for giving us the infrastructure to insure we have clean transactions and could do this professionally. Thank you especially to JB, who seems to have to make new scripty things for us every year 
Their experience and thought in making systems that will insure every last linden goes to the American Cancer Society freed us up to do the things we can do well. This is our second year with you guys and you haven’t told us to go away yet. Woot!
Second, thank you to Anne Daumig, who assisted me considerably in making Fashion for Life function as things geared up. I kind of tossed it all at her and she sorted it out, fielding questions from designers and residents, posting tons of blogs, cheering along and listening to me get emo, rerezzing raffle vendors every time they poofed. She ate stale fish sticks, tipped the pizza delivery guy extra, and suffered through a sore tooth so she could be online to help me out. Thank you so much, Anne!
Thank you to Roscko Cobalt, who stayed up for 28 hours straight to make our sim map (like a lunatic) and to Bonadea Avedon, who assisted all over the sims and generally cheered things on and make Roscko’s dinner.Thank you, Aphrodite Atlas, for coming in to help when I needed it and for the purple yarn.
Thank you to Syngen Sohmers for the original vendors, the initial logo, and the build concepts and rules. Your absence was felt.
Thank you to Nave Fall, who got me interviews, published articles, found me resources, and generally pushed me along. Thanks to Kimmera Madison, who donated her work for the Fashion for Life signature dress you see on all the posters, and who did many graphic miracles last minute for me.
Thank you to Ivy Maverick, Skintrader (Ahn) Greyskin and JShawn Thirdborn, who helped organize the hunt and took a huge load off my hands!
Thank you to Samantha Ohrberg, the Dream Seeker Estates Community Engagement Director, who organized 12 hours of entertainment for each and every day, did all the promo, organized the hosting, heped with the final build, and generally made herself available during tht time. That’s dedication!
Thank you also to Roe Woodford, from Dream Seekers Productions, who organized two amazing fashion shows with her group of gorgeous and dedicated models: Kalyabreaa Capelo, Laetitia Vella, Linnda Scofield, Nemi McCoy, Rex Requiem, Veracity Afterthought, Veronica Krassner, Hikaru Enimo, Kalyabreeaa Capelo, Latrelly Flux, Liam Netizen, Matteo Bettencourt, Meimei Shiu, Michela Benazzi, Pedrinho Naire, Rex Requiem, and Rhonda Pennell. They suffered a horrible sim for their first show and stuck around and pulled off an amazing show with grace and class. Thank you, sister
Thank you to our amazing builders—Cierra Anatine, Grace Loudon, Nigel Riel, Frederick Lancaster, Troy Vogel, Rathmeous Dagger and Alecto Vella, Roscko Cobalt, Cory Edo, DB Bailey, and Anoron Hanson. Your building brought hope to life, gave us a sense of time and time ticking, enveloped everything in a veneer of beauty and goodness. Thank you for the cost you bore in uploads and time and for bearing with the last minute issues. Your individual visions have been imprinted on our memories.
Thank you to the Sim Sponsors—AngelWing, Bliss Couture, Tres Beau, PurpleMoon, LeeZu!, FallnAngel Creations, Emo-tions, Alafolie, Sonatta Morales, Lapointe and Bastchild, and Azul–who each donated 50,000L and who each set up magnificent stores in their respective sims and became the cornerstones of our inspiration.
Thank you to our generous VIP Sponsors—Aleida, Moonstruck Fantavatar, Styles of Edo, Eclectica, Gizza, KittyCatS, Vista Animations, SF Design, Morea Style, Dare Designs, DV8, Milky House, Crie Style, Mashooka, Kim, Blush, AvCon, MyDear, Steals and Deals, and Vanity Flair by Lera. Each donated 10,000L to ACS to put their support behind our event and to make their commitment to this cause. Their donations meant more than just money—they were stamps of approval and verification that we are doing the right thing.
Thank you to our 184 Store Sponsors, who each donated 3,000L but beyond that, content, promotion, support, encouragement, and oh gosh… absolutely amazing beauty for so many avatars in SL. You brought Fashion for Life to life!
Thank you to the many bloggers who covered Fashion for Life. You provided much-needed word-of-mouth (and took AWESOME photos). (Check this link and see all the great blogs and then this link to see who else contributed.) Thank you especially to Jenica Landar, who did double duty, Catty Loon, Keira Soulstar, and Quella Quan, who all put stuff on THIS blog and saved me so much time and effort and made this blog informative, fun, and absolutely beautiful. Each one of you brought a different perspective to this, and for that, I thank you.
Especial thanks to Vixen Thibedeau and Lori Swashbuckler at Seraphimsl.com, who did special and overtime coverage of our gachas and sales. Thanks to Gavin McGinnis, who leant his time and expertise in setting up our Facebook page. Thanks to the feeds Style Academy and Shopaholic who gave us special advertising. Thanks to Hey Girlfriends, Womenstuff and Menstuff, Dream Seeker Estates, and Costa Rica Sims who let us spew announcements.
Thank you to TJ, Izzy, Dee, Patch, Viola, Viale, Lexie, and Brett Linden, who all did something special for us in their own ways and capacities. And congratulations, Zed! I won’t enumerate but really, people, kiss a Linden today.
Thank you to those of you who put money into the RFL kiosks without expectation of thanks or content—donations of 50L, 15,000L, 20,000L, 25,000L and even 100,000L. We saw it. Thank you.
Thank you to Zeebster Colasanti and the Dream Seeker Estates, who stepped in and underwrote our sims with their considerable donation. Thank you to the folks who work at Dream Seekers, who let me ask questions about sim maintenance and let me generally bug them. Thank you, Zeeb, for helping me manage the sims, for giving advice, and for reminding me why I do Fashion for Life and for seeking that with your vision as well. You inspire me.
Finally, thank you to my dear ones, my loved ones, my friends, who all waited for me while I was busy. Thank you, especially, to John, who has built enough character indeed. I do stuff like this so you build more.
With much hope that a cure will be found in my lifetime,
Harper Beresford
Fashion for Life
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