Fantasy Faire at Relay Weekend

On the scale of one to gazillion, how much are you missing the Fairelands? Did you miss your chance of taking pictures of you on the Cool Bus? Have you never seen the Sacred Flamingos that are the first to land on the freshly emerged Fairelands every year? Is one of your Faire gachas incomplete?

Worry not, for some pieces of the Fairelands have landed on Fantasy Faire’s campsite at Relay Weekend, going on right now! Go dance with the flamingos, admire bus details, play some gachas and then go enjoy the rest of the Relay Weekend!

The Fairelands One Team Initiative 2019

[A message from Oldesoul Eldemar, ONE TEAM Initiative Lead for Fantasy Faire 2019]

Dr. Gordy Klatt, the founder of Relay For Life said it best. “One person can make a difference.”

Fairelanders know this is true.  We also know that as we join together each year, we become part of something much bigger than any one of us alone can be.  Whether we are Relaying in the physical world or a virtual world, whether by a donation or a kind word, we are all working together. This is the true meaning of ONE TEAM.  It’s about each of us choosing to make a difference and the great good which can then be achieved. It’s about our fellowship with one another and the greater good our unity then makes manifest.

We support one another and by doing so ONE TEAM becomes more than label, more than an abstract idea. It becomes measurable. It becomes real.

This year, six RFL Teams joined with Fantasy Faire to be part of our One Team Initiative:  Team Bonanza Country RFL, Fly For Life, Game of Thrones Reborn RFL, Roos With a Dream, Soul Sisters N FaMiLy, and We are Dragons. They were joined by our returning Anchor Teams, Team ACTS, Team Cure Chasers and Team Shadow. The Fairelands want to thank these nine teams for all the wonderful, immersive experiences they helped us to create.  Together, we all learned more about the ACS’s Global Initiatives and we worked together to support and expand that vital work. We rolled up our sleeves, fixed our eyes on a mighty goal and helped to finish what the Fairelands set out to do last year. Together, we helped Build Hope a Home in Kenya.

For the eleven days of the Faire, our nine ONE TEAM Initiative Partners held events and raised money for Fantasy Faire.  On the twelfth day, the Faire gave back. L$257,700 was raised for those nine teams. For ten hours, five DJs kept the party going strong. They represented the full array of leadership that also embodies the ONE TEAM Spirit. From Fantasy Faire, Elizabeth Tinsley, David Abbot and Zander Greene each offered sets in tribute to our ONE TEAM Partners. Representing the ACS Mission Leadership in Second Life, Nuala Maracas then joined them to do the same. And finally, the RFL of SL Leadership was represented by Gem Sunkiller to finish off this remarkable day of celebration, generosity and unity.

Fantasy Faire and our nine ONE TEAM Partners raised a staggering sum in 2019. But no matter which team the totals were applied to, in the end all of it goes to help our friends and at the American Cancer Society in their mission to help more of our friends in Kenya. We are a global community reaching out to a global community to help solve a global challenge. That is why the Kenyatta National Hospital Hope Hostel will be a reality.

Fantasy Faire is only possible because 750 people work together to ensure that the ONE TEAM spirit is more than just an idea. It’s a plan, one that depends on each and every one of us. We are Teams, Organizers, Builders, Sponsors, Creators, Artists, DJs, Performers, Photographers, Bloggers, Website Gurus, Tabletop Gamers, Lit Fest Presenters, Role-Players, Quest Developers, Jail and Bail Participants, the Pawlice, Fantasy Faire Radio, Survivors and Caregivers.  As ONE TEAM, we unite to help The American Cancer Society in its global mission: to save lives, celebrate lives, and to lead the fight for a world without cancer.

We’re all proud of our respective teams, but ultimately, we know that we are actually part of ONE TEAM called Relay For Life. We’re on Gordy’s team because he showed us what we can do when we stand shoulder to shoulder. He showed us what we can achieve when we believe in one another. One person can indeed make a difference. A world of such people united can change the world for the better.

We may arrive from different directions, but we depart together for the same destination on the global “cool bus” that is Relay For Life. And we are All Aboard! For A Cure!

Thank you!

Oldesoul

A Few closing thoughts

by Elizabeth Tinsley, Zander Greene and Da5id Abbot

The Vizier, in dragon form, watches out over the Fairelands as the mists roll in. Picture by Da5id Abbot

Another year, and another Faire reaches its end. This year’s has been a rough one behind the scenes in many ways and, while the Unweaver always takes a good crack at knocking us down there were times this year when he seemed to be trying particularly hard. But together, as always, we came through it. Technical issues, surprises and all the usual complications that go with running an event this size came together to try and stop us.

But they didn’t.

A Wandering Life

For some, a life apart was the only true way of living.

 

Never quite comfortable at the beginning, all things take some getting used to. Even ruts take time to wear in, furrows some time to plough. Some find comfort in the familiar, unaware of, or perhaps not caring about the wearing away and moulding they receive in return. The grit in the shoe, the twitching discomfort of muscle or soul, these plagued some past the point of forbearance. For better or worse, the pursuit of something ‘other’ had to begin.

Why I Relay

The words whispered through the lanes, rounded corners, and whistled through the leaves of the Shrine Tree.

 

Words of all languages, from all lands. From tongues long lost, their syllables faded from all worlds but this. Cries of pure sound, filled with meaning even before understanding speech. The murmured, the whispered, the silence of words only thought, or communicated by gesture, by touch. Their soft breeze gently nudged the lanterns hanging from every bough. Shouts, yells and screams shook the ground, sending showers of petals down from branches high above.

All Builders Together

by Elizabeth Tinsley, Zander Greene and Da5id Abbot

As we write this, Elizabeth’s chasing late-arriving merchants, Zander’s in studio producing pieces for FFR and David’s on top of a tower watching the check-in team working to help those merchants who’ve already arrived and set up their stores. It’s the Faire in a nutshell: everyone working in their own tasks to create a larger whole, and that again is a snapshot of Relay, which is a snapshot of the fight against cancer.

Last year, we said “We’re all builders now.” It’s still true: the Hope Hostel at Kenyatta National Hospital is almost ready to begin, and by the end of this Relay season we’re pretty confident that they’ll be ready to break ground, but we’re building – and we have built – more than a place for people to stay. We’ve built a home here in the Fairelands that we each take with us when the mists return and we go our separate ways for another year. We’ve built a dream of a better world – one where cancer is easily treated and where survivors and caregivers no longer have to face the struggles they do now.

Most importantly, though, we’ve built a community.

An Update on the KNH Hope Hostel from Kristen Solt, American Cancer Society

Kristen Solt of the American Cancer Society, with the staff of the Kenyatta National Hospital Hope Hostel, Nairobi, Kenya.

Dear Fairelanders,

Last year, we at the American Cancer Society asked you to pioneer an innovative approach to fundraising for a project of global importance. As the time draws near for another Faire, I wanted to give you an update on where that project now stands.