HEROES Sims - Relay For Life events held over the past several months in Second Life will culminate in a 24 hour relay this weekend. Beginning at 10 a.m PDT on Saturday, July 19, the Relay will officially kick off with a speeches by the Planning Committee Chair, Fayandra Foley and American Cancer Society representative, RC  MArs, followed by a Survivor's Lap for cancer survivors. The Relay is held on a record 35 sims donated by Linden Lab to teams participating in Relay for Life. The Relay officially ends Sunday, July 20, at 10 a.m. PDT.

2008 marks the fourth year Relay for Life has been held in Second Life, with each year's benefit fund and total number of participants and teams growing exponentially larger. Last year $188,000 USD was raised and 1700 Second Life residents participated. This year the total amount raised, L$43,781,605, is already bumping up to last years' total and the big event has not yet taken place.

The Relay For Life sims this year are all called "Heroes" and are numbered 1-35. Residents can teleport to the RFL sims starting today to compete for prizes and to enjoy the spectacular builds of the Relay For Life teams while they run around the track set up.

Around the grid, more than 85 teams and countless residents have worked tirelessly the past several months hosting fund raising events, building and designing things for sale, memorialiszing those who have lost their battle and celebrating the survivors of cancer. Events hosted have included several dozen themed proms, nightly live concerts, at least two RFL shopping fairs and various auctions. A record donation was hit this past week when Kay Faery bid $460,000L for one limited edition dress by Eshi Otawara, placing Kay at the top of the RFL donor's list.

At the time of this story being published, the Relay Raiders hold top place for total amount of funds raised with L$9,317,400 total raised, though they were holding events in SL this evening that will undoubtedly raise this amount even higher.

The history of the real world Relay For Life benefit is posted on the website, but little has been said about the event's history in Second Life. It started in 2004 with Jade Lily, longtime resident of SL.

According to the SLWiki, "In 2004, the petite brunette took pains to create a donation system for residents to sponsor Jade's real-life running team for the American Cancer Society's annual Relay for Life. She was unable to get the venerable nonprofit's support for that year, but she did so in 2005, working with an A.C.S.