Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund update: First $1,000 raised!!

I posted the following "press release" to the SLED Picayune blog and to the SLED listserv yesterday:

"In an effort to provide Second Life residents with a means of supporting the "Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund," SL resident, a RL Virginia Tech faculty member, Milosun Czervik (Ross Perkins) initiated an in-world fundraising campaign on April 19th. Hundreds of SL residents have been donating funds via donation boxes and vendors, where they can receive a Hokies t-shirt to wear on their avatar.

After a silent auction, held this past week on EduIsland (see the Chronicle of Higher Education web report), the goal of raising L$300,000 has been reached. The funds have been converted to US dollars via LindeX, yielding $1,085 US.Once the money has been deposited to a PayPal account and can be accessed, Perkins will write a check for the full amount to the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund. Next up? Perkins plans to initiate a new campaign to raise more funds for the Memorial Fund and scholarships that have been started in memory of the victims of the April 16 tragedy."

For this blog, I want to personally thank a number of volunteers who helped make the VT Memorial and the HSMF fundraiser possible (this list will grow as I remember/find more names!)

Lorelei Junot, Abbey Zenith, Katrina Sol, Marston Davids, Penelope Ghia, Perefim Cao, Eloise Pasteur, Dedric Mauriac, Dagmar Kojishi, Ann Enigma, ZeroOne Paz, DianaPrince Carter, Eddie Hagoromo, Robin Linden...

HSMF Fundraising Report

I am *so* excited to announce today that I am on the way to raising another US$1,000 for the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund! This means, of course, that the wonderful, generous SL residents helped meet the first L$300,000 goal! That goal was surpassed this week, when those who participated in the Silent Auction on EduIsland helped raise nearly L$15,000. Then, tonight, the HSMF received an unexpected, generous donation of L$10,000 - which is great start for the next L$300K goal.

So, I put the first batch of Linden dollars up for sale on LindeX (a limit sell of L$265 to US$1.00) on the advice of one SL colleague. I expected this to sell in three days. However, I got impatient after waiting all day and see nada. In fact, I was quite discouraged to see that there was something like L$15 million in open orders at this rate. Another SL colleague (Coal Edge) shared his wisdom - he sells for 267/1.00. I tried this tonight and within 10 minutes, ALL funds had sold and the net result was $84 greater than my goal! Now - I just have to move it to PayPal and give a check to Virginia Tech!! It appears that Edge's logic to sell at a rate where there is a low amount of open orders works very well (generally the lowest rate +1 or +2). If I'd gone with 265, I'd possibly have waited 3 more days for a mere US$8.00...

One question I am trying to get answered is whether not LindenLab will waive the 3.5% conversion fee. This would give another US $40 (or so) back. I can understand if they do not, but it would be great if they did that. Perhaps they'll make a matching gift ?? ;-)

VT Memorial Digital Archive

A digital library that captures stories and images about the tragedy at Virginia Tech on 16-APR-07.