It’s a Wonderful Second Life!

By Abby Zenith

Do you remember George Bailey in “It’s a Wonderful Life”?  it is a movie that is popular this time of year.  George lives a small town life of selflessness service for the good of others and the community.   When it looks like his life’s work will come crashing down around him and George despairs, an angel pays him a visit showing him how over the years he had touched the lives of others in positive ways.  A few weeks ago when Linden Labs made the announcement that they would no longer offer non-profit and educational rates for private sim ownership the volunteers of Community Virtual Library (CVL) were among those that felt the blow and despaired, just as George Bailey did.  CVL volunteers have spent years providing library services and resources to Second Life residents.  They have touched the lives of countless Second Life residents offering everything from SL how-to and directional help to help with real life informational needs.

Many non-profits and educators were upset with the Linden announcement and unsure of their ability to afford to remain in Second Life.  Community Virtual Library is a non-profit public library operating in Second Life since 2006.  For the first three years, we were known as Alliance Virtual Library and backed by the Alliance Library System in Illinois.  With the economic downturn, ALS, had to pull out of Second Life in early 2010, and Community Virtual Library was formed as a registered non-profit to continue as a library in SL.  CVL took on the operation of four sims, Info Island, Imagination Island, Info Island International, and Cybrary City 2.   CVL has no real life counterpart as a library and no institutional backing.  We were depending on donations to pay tier and with Linden Lab essentially doubling the cost, we did not know if we could survive.  Stunned, we listened to the outcry and the urging of many to move to other virtual worlds.  After receiving many comments on their decision, Linden Labs made a new announcement offering the non-profit/educational rate for up to 24 months to current sim owners if they paid in advance.

We discussed our options at an emergency meeting of the CVL advisory board. Without the available cash in reserve, we couldn’t take advantage of that offer. If we only kept one sim, would we be able to meet the tier? Could we keep more than one if we rented out space?  Cybrary City 2 is already a self-sustaining sim that rents parcels to individual libraries or library groups and we wondered if those groups would stay at the increased rates.  We all felt strongly that Info Island would be our first priority, and that we would do whatever we could to keep that sim, but the overall outlook was bleak. As we discussed these issues we received an instant message from an angel donor.  A CVL supporter pledged $1000 USD toward a fund to help keep CVL in SL. The advisory board was thrilled and our discussion turned to fundraising.  Perhaps we could raise enough to pay for Info Island for 6, 12, 18, or 24 months in advance. Someone said why not set a higher goal and try to raise the money to operate two sims for 24 months! This gave birth to the idea of an intensive month of fundraising throughout November.  With a small balance of in the bank and the $1000 USD angel donation, we set out to raise enough money to pay for two sims for two years: $7080 USD!

We called it FUNdraising, with the thought that even if we didn’t make our goal we would enjoy trying!  Our semi-annual yard-sale was already scheduled for the last two weeks in November and volunteers quickly went to work soliciting, donating, and readying items to sell there.  Other volunteers canvassed SL designers they knew to ask for donations for the retail area of the sale and for both a live auction and a silent auction.  The generosity of these SL designers was awesome.  Auction items included a fully loaded Intan dance machine, fine jewelry, and clothing and the retail area had toys, clothing, jewelry, furnishings and decorations.

The FUNdraising drive opened October 31^st with a Ghoul Gala at the Jazz Cat on Info Island International.  Picture zombies, ghosties, and all sorts of scarries, dressed in their finest formals and you have a visual of this night.  The night included a guest appearance by a devilish avatar named Stalker, who proved to be quite the smooth talker and an excellent dance partner.

The following Saturday night we had an Open Mic night, managed by Rocky Vallejo and emceed by Silhshoot Seelow and Clicquot Oh  Our star attraction was SL performer Debi Latte who graciously opened and closed the event, donating her talents and tips, and setting the pace for an evening of fun.   Volunteers sang, read stories, and performed.  The multi-talented Leeorie Alter   danced a ballet while reciting poetry!  Rocky Vallejo sang “I Dream of Jeanie” in his fine tenor voice, and even I braved my fears long enough to sing for the first time ever in public.  The Seanachi storytellers enchanted us with their tales and there was the added delight of volunteers from the audience participating too.  Open Mic night was so much fun that we are planning on having others next year.

The Yard Sale opened with a fashion show featuring some of the great outfits available for the yard sale.  Our volunteer models, directed by Puglet Dancer competed for tips donated to CVL.  The fashions were fabulous and the models delightful.  They took to the catwalk like professionals and worked the audience for donations and laughs at the same time.   The Yard Sale, managed by Katt Tomsen and Abbey Sideways covered about a third of the sim November 14th-30th.  It offered clothing, furniture, buildings, decorations, shoes and more, thanks to the generous donations of many people who cleaned out their inventories to make this event a success.  Near the Yard Sale we located a retail site, managed by Rolig Loon, with designer original creations on sale from their designers with all profits going to CVL.  The opening party, fashion show, and yard sale/retail sale raised over 40,000 Lindens!

In search of fun ideas to raise money, we tried a new twist on an idea seen at clubs around SL where people vote for the top model or host/hostess by giving donations.  Marimar Berchot, CVL Volunteer Coordinator managed this FUNdraiser which we called the Wall of Infamy.  Our categories were just for fun challenging contestants to be number one with the highest heels, or having the most distinctive nose, etc.  It was a fun competition with several of us upping the ante by voting for underdogs each day, bringing total donations along to a final tally of nearly 55,000 Lindens.  This area was so popular we’ve had requests to repeat the event for special occasions.

CVL undertook its first live auction for the next FUNdraiser.  Thanks to generous donations of items by  Endra Graves, of Artistry by ~E~; DarkMook Lilliehook, of DarkMoon Creations; Miko Omegamu, of Icing; TigerEye Inventor, of TigerEye Designs; Rosslyn Guardian, of FalconRose; and Emedea Morgenstern, of Rag Dollz we raised over 40,000 Lindens.   Rolig Loon’s skillful scripting talents provided the ability for us to manage bids at the live auction, donations/voting at the Wall of Infamy and other donation objects in use during the FUNdraising drive.  The live auction also the kicked-off our silent auction for great jewelry donated by Endra Graves, of Artistry by ~E~ and the Volunteer Expert Auction, managed by Adra Letov,  where bidders had the opportunity to bid on a two hour block of expertise from some of our volunteers experienced in building, scripting, simulcasting, machinima, design, event planning, and social networking.   The two silent auctions netted nearly 70,000 Lindens!

During the month our wonderful supporters and their friends dropped by to watch the donation tally rise and drop their Lindens in the donation boxes to help.  Our total donations for the month of November were over 270,000 Lindens, including donations from some of the events.  By the third week in the month we were close to our dream goal, the one that seemed so out of reach when we began the month.

In planning the month’s events we decided that if we were approaching our goal by the final week we would consider a repeat of the biggest and most controversial fund raiser the library had ever had for the last event.  Calling it CVL Afterhours: Volunteers Gone GaGa, we brought pole dancing back to the floor of CVL’s social club the Jazz Cat.  We used this type of an event as a fundraiser back in 2006 and there was much discussion about the propriety of librarians dancing for money.  We do want to be thought of as professionals working in virtual worlds, but even in the “real world” a couple of enterprising librarians groups have created librarian pin-up calendars to raise money.  We knew it would be FUN and bring in the Lindens, so we went for it!  We stipulated that both guys and gals could participate in the dancing and no stripping was allowed (more to prevent wardrobe malfunctions than a worry about tastefulness).  Sexy costumes were de rigueur and wow, were they hot!  All for a good cause and as a FUNdraiser it topped them all earning $137,000 Lindens for one event!

When November’s FUNdraising events were over, the yard sale closed, and the final bids on the silent auction and expert auction tallied we had raised close to 560,000 Lindens!   During November we also received donations through our Website at www.infoisland.org, and with that $1000, angel donation that encouraged us to give fundraising our best shot we raised a grand total of $XXXX USD.  We’re came so very near raising the dream goal we set, that we have every confidence now that we will reach it before the December 31^st Linden deadline.  We have already notified Linden Labs that we will be renewing Info Island and Imagination Island for 24 months!  We are immensely grateful for the outpouring of support and the donations we have received in the last few weeks.  We cannot begin to thank everyone by name, but we certainly want you all to know how much this has meant to us.  Everyone who donated items, lindens, time, and expertise made this dream come true.  At CVL we are feeling that indeed, “It’s a Wonderful Life” this holiday season.  Thank you for keeping CVL in SL!