Leaders of the Relay For Life of Second Life travelled to Dallas,Texasthis past weekend to participate in the 2009 Relay For Life Nationwide Leadership Summit.The Summit is an annual activity bringing together Relay staff andvolunteer leadership for 2 days of training to help each Relayimprove and grow. Attendees from Australia, Canada, the United Kingdomand South Africa were joined by Second Life as honored guests. Thesummit goers attended various workshops designed to arm them with thenewest innovations and ideas, reinforce basic Relay activities andshare individual ideas and successes.Relay For Life of Second Life was represented by incoming Event ChairTayzia Abattoir, co-chair Nuala Maracas and Trader Whiplash. Theywere joined there by Staff Partner Stingray9798 Raymaker.Reuel Johnson, the American Cancer Society's Vice President for RelayFor Life specifically cited Relay For Life of Second Life during hisopening remarks, noting that the virtual Relay had exceeded itstarget, raising more than $274,000, had attracted more than 120 teams,and had over 750 years of survivorship represented on the track duringits opening lap on July 18th.The avatar of Trader Whiplash, co-winner of the 2009 Spirit of Relay award in Second Life, presented a 3minute video to the nearly 500 attendees, as part of the Quality portion of the summit.A highlight of this year’s conference was the induction of longtimeSociety volunteer Jeff Ross of North Carolina into the Relay For LifeHall of Fame. Jeff is an 8 year Relayer who's passion and dedicationto Relay is overshadowed only by his unending passion for people andlife. He has been called upon to speak at Relays all around the globeand is affectionately known as the Relay Preacher. He joins Dr. GordyKlatt, who in 1985 founded Relay For Life by running around a track inTacoma Washington for 24 hours raising $24,000 for the Society. PatFlynn known as the Mother of Relay, a friend and patient of Dr Klattwho helped establish Relay as the Society's signature fundraisingevent, the late Terry Zahn, a reporter and anchorman from HamptonRoads, VA who produced a television series called “My Life With Cancer”as well as 2 nationally-distributed videos encouraging communities tohold Relay For Life events, and Dr. Bob Brodell who founded the firstCelebration on the Hill to bring Relay For Life to the Capitol, andhelped integrate the Advocacy role into Relay For Life.
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