With Great Appreciation...

Blues for Autism 2011 broke the record for funds raised for autism awareness and support. The reason for the success was, naturally, those who contributed. But nothing would be possible without a special group of people who committed their time and energy to make things happen. It is for that reason that BFA founder, Magi McBride continued her tradition of throwing a spectacular ball in appreciation for those who helped.

This year, Magi chose the theme of Camelot for "a night of fun and frolic". It was a great opportunity for those who love to dressup to be come Ladies and Knights. Medieval attire was requsted but everyone was asked to come shoeless! Magi envisioned ladies coming in sprintime dresses with flowers in their hair, but she thought the guys might not like the idea of tights and poofy shirts. So, she let the guys come in any attire they are comfortable with.

Thursday night the Appreciation Ball was held in a magical world created just for the evening. And upon arrival, guests where transported and emersed in a most enchanting scene of greenery and flowers and peaceful waterfalls. The atmosphere was filled with the delights of Spring and the special merriments of May.

Those new to the BFA fundraiser might wonder what the inspiration came from. This year, Magi placed a picture of her grandson, Joey near the entrance to the ball. For four years, Magi's work has been both altruistic and personal.

This night of fun and frolic needed someone to bring the right music too, something a little joyful, a little lusty, and of course, a lot of romantic. Our music maker for the evening was DJ BC Susser. BC is a regular at JudyBlues and The Riverside blues clubs, so it was a certainty that there'd be a bluesy flavor to his tunes. But BC had many wonderful romantic surprises in his selections.

DJ BC Susser spun a set that helped create the magic of the evening.

The evening had begun. And although Magi may have envisioned the men tights and poofy shirts, Medieval meant one thing to the guys, Knighthood. And there were many knights. However, the Ladies new exactly how to dress and not one of them wore shoes. Following is a photo essay.

There were knights with their ladies.

Friends spread out around the May pole and danced.

The ball spread across a beautiful, relaxing scene.

Finally at the end of the evening, some brave knights and maids jumped onto the May pole.

At the end of the evening Magi thanked everyone for their support, and there were many thanks returned. But just to be sure she knows...
Thank you Magi!

It was a lovely night but the best part as always was the gathering of the people who supportered this effort. The guests included Breeze Windrum & Ethernal Bigbear, Thor Effingham & Leanna Chaffe, BC Susser, Kitten Lytton & Lucian Starsmith, Straton Tigerpaw, Kenai Harbour & Jynxx Magic, Larry Pelia, Jacan Slade & Hi Ellia, Merrymay Lorgsval & Sam, MrDs Magic & Layla Mesmeriser, Tippy Wingtips & Quantum Quasimodo, Runnr Bingyi, Miss Luci Bergbahn, Gracee Du'Mont & Destinova Du'Mont, Blu Brando & Gala Caproni-Brando, and Takamatsu Soke & Yordie Sands. Thank you to everyone who could attend the ball and thiank you to all of the supporters who may not have been here, but were in our thoughts.

This year was a record breaking fundraiser, L$1,567,537 in donations. This year the fundraising events were all compressed into the month of April. This year we met new friends both in and outside the bluesy community and it's become clear that Blues for Autism has moved outside it's original scope.

For anyone who would like to join in next year's fundraiser, please join the Blues for Autism group inworld.

The Incredible Bluesy Celebrity Auction

It was a Wednesday night at Magi McBride's Natchez Trace. The place was packed with blues club owners, celebrities to all of us in our virtual world, all nervous about being auctioned off for a dance to benefit the Blues for Autism fundraiser. The master of ceremonies was the inimitable Thundergas Menges was going to auction the celebrities off. And the place was packed, almost 80 at the start of the event.

The celebrities represented eleven different Second Life blues clubs: JJ Heartsdale, JJ's Joint; DonPaul Cale*, Hotlanta; Judyblue Stand, Judyblues; Pronvelle Cristole, The Wharf; Cidnee Cooperstone, The Riverside; Jaco Fitzpatrick, The Crossroads; Lucinda Bergbahn, Dreamcatcher's Distillery; Raymond65 Docherty, The Riverside; Richardina "Dina" Petty*, Junkyard Blues; MrDs Magic, Underground Garage; Magi McBride*, Founder of Blues for Autism. (Note: *celeb has also been auctioned in past BFA auctions.)

Everything was there for an great party and an incredible fundraiser. Following is a pictorial review.

The event was formal and the bidders filled the ballroom, 78 people at one point!
(photo by Takamatsu Soke)

Master of Ceremonies Thundergas Menges took the microphone with his inimitable deep voice and began presenting the celebrities for bid.

(photo by Takamatsu Soke)

Some of the celebs sashayed up on the auction stand for their first Blues for Autism dance auction, like JudyBlues Stand.

(Photo by Thor Effingham)

Some old friends, like Junkyard Blues' Dina Petty, came back for a second time on the Blues for Autism auction block.

And there were men who took the stand. Here's Pronvelle Christole representing The Warf.

Blues for Autism Market Place hosting sim The Crossroads owner Jaco Fitzpatrick wore his formal jeans and leather jacket.

(photo by Takamatsu Soke)

The Riverside's Cidnee Cooperstone stands quietly as her high bid soars to L$20,000 but the bidding was far from over on Cidnee!

Even Blues for Autism sponsor, Magi McBride took to the auction block (her second time too), anchoring this exciting event.
(Photo by Takamatsu Soke)

The BFA Dance Auction was a unique event in that it brought together the owners of all the blues club owners in Second Life. That in itself is a wonderful commentary on bluesy people. But these owners put themselves on the auction block and that takes courage because everyone wants to do well, but there will aways be someone who brings in the highest bid. At the end of the event, the total BFA auction donations were L$254,769! And there was more, the total for the BFA kiosks was L$55,951.00!

The grand total for the evening was L$310,720!

And grand total for all fundraising now at L$1,122,536!!

This year's BFA dance auction brought in almost 50% more than last year's auction event, and it's no secret as to why. Even before last year's event was finished, Magi McBride formed a vision of an event with blues club owners and with the outstanding help of Leanna Chaffe, Thor Effingham and Tippy Wingtips working tirelessly, this event was a success in every aspect. So, tip of the had to this organizing team!

Special Thanks to each of the club owners who joined this project and who created the atmosphere for contributions! People who've never been up on an auction block might not realize, that for some of us, it can be very lonely up there.

And as always, the kindest and heart felt thanks to those who bid on our celebs and to those who contributed to the BFA kiosks. Without your generosity this would not have been the success it is.

by Yordie Sands

(personal thanks to Takamatsu Soke and Thor Effingham for helping me with photographing the event when my own broadband service was failing me.)

ZZ Top @ BFA Beach Party

Lightening Productions has done a wonderful job in their tributes to many of the classic rock and blues bands, they've also been a great friend to the Blues for Autism initiative. And last night, the Lightening crew presented an amazing ZZ Top concert for the BFA 2011 Beach Party fundraiser. Magi McBride hosted the event at her Natchez Trace sim which had been transformed into a beach with palms, beach chairs, beach bar, bonfire and the beautiful ZZ Top set; there was even a red hot rod parked nearby.

In addition, DJ Jacan Slade took over after the concert and delivered his own amazing set of rockin' blues. And also, this was the kickoff of the Beach Babe Contest which runs for a week, sponsored by Kizmet Kidd's TenderLove HUD product.

The ZZ Top crew included Coz OKelly as Dusty Hill, Plato Ninetails as Billy Gibbons and Thor Effingham as Frank Beard. There was a hot pack of dancers with Kenzia Mager, Rhonda Thibedeau and Cherrylicious Doobie.

The show opened with Dusty (Cuz) and Billy (Plato) raging on their fuzzy guitars while Frank (Thor-Oh-Good) was wailing on his drums.

As the show got rolling, Thor pulled the mufflers off his drums and the dudes put the music on turbocharge.

The music was totally ZZ Top with everything from"Blue Jean Blues" to "Tush". And there was a great crowd of beach goers, averaging 40 much of the night.

Here's BFA Founder Magi McBride, next to the Blues for Autism 2011 kiosk, in a hot itsy-bitsy leopard skin bikini.

After the flaming ZZ Top Concert, Crossroads regular DJ Jacan Slade took over the stream and began spinning a fantastic set which included more rock and blues. Jacan started his set with AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" and included others from Santana to War.

Last night was also the kickoff of the BFA Beach Babe Contest and 20 babes (including dudes!!) signed up. The prize for winning is a TenderLove 4.0 HUD. To vote join or vote for your favorite babe, click this Natchez Trace link for SLURL.

It was a wonderful evening for the Blues for Autism 2011 fundraiser. The Concert & Beach Party brought in L$26,561, and the Beach Babe Contest brought in an additional L$15,969.

The evenings donations of L$42,530 drove the BFA total to L$311,806.

Thank you to the performers, and thank you to all the guests who contributed and/or joined the Beach Babe Contest. Always, thank you to the BFA Organizing Committee, with special thanks to Takamatsu Soke who co-hosted the evening's event with yours truly.

And a reminder: all Lindens donated will be converted to US Dollars at the end of the fundraiser and contributed to Autism Society.org.

by Yordie Sands

The Amazing Blues Fest

The Blues Fest concert is another tradition of the Blues for Autism fundraiser. In fact, Blues Fest has been the event where the bluesy community really shows its' greatest generosity. It is also the event that brings together the most diverse group of bluesy folks and people who's lives have been impacted by autism. And one last thing, it has also been a forum for our friends to express their personal feelings about autism. That is how Blues Fest has been for the past two years and that is how it was last night.

Before the concert started the BFA committee began rolling into the event site at Maginolia. Everyone was nervous because it takes a great deal of planning and coordinating to setup these events and as all Second Life residents know, SL exists on a web of computers all over the world. The first performer was Beamer Lowtide and by time of Beamer's show the crowd had begin to swell. Following is a pictorial story of an amazing day and amazing night.

Over 30 people had arrived for the opening show at 10am.

Singer, songwriter, musician Beamer Lowtide, streaming in from Tulsa, Oklahoma opened the show with "Banana Pancakes". Beamer stummed his sweet acoustic guitar, and while he sang with his distinct bluesy-country sounds, the crowd began contributing generously. Beamer closed with a gentle "Sweet Malissa".

Beamer Lowtide singing "Sweet Malissa"

Next up was self-professed "joker/teaser/flirt" DJ Ben Shutt. Ben began his show with a blend of rock n' blues, but shortly after he started he threw out a challenge. Ben said he'd match all the donations received during his performance and almost at once the donations started pouring in. While Ben played songs form Seger to SRV to Eric Clapton, the donations kept pouring in. By the end of Ben's set contributions exceeded L$100,000 and with Ben's matching amount the total raised was L$214,140. At this point there was a feeling that Blues Fest was going to be a success.

Handsome and charming Ben Shutt performing and making his generous challenge.

When technical problems prevented the next performer from streaming, Ben stepped in and spun more tunes until the fabulous DJ Lucinda Bergbahn was up.

Lucinda "Miss Luci" Bergbahn has been a supporter of Blues for Autism from the first and while she spun one of her patented sets of bluesy tunes, she talked passionately about the history of BFA. Luci also explained how autism is a developmental disability, and a problem with the nervous system with no "cure". When she played "Through the eyes of a child", there wasn't a dry eye in the house, and by the end of her show donations totaled L$1,112,667.

Miss Luci showed her great compassion for people with autism.

Again, technical problems kept the next performer from streaming and like Ben earlier, Miss Luci continued her show until the incomparable Allister Westland took the stage.

Allister Westland is a singer/songwriter/musician, and he sings a blend of new and classic rock. He is also an electrifying musician on both acoustic and electric guitar. If you've never heard Allister sing, imagine a deep resonate voice that is both masculine but with a gentleness that reaches out and touches you. Al sang a selection of songs including "Love is Overrated", "Electric Soul" and others.

Allister on stage, generating his magic.

DJFiery Otaared is one of the pillars of the SL bluesy community and Fiery has a clear intellect and is gifted with an ability to communicate and move people with her ideas. This year, as last year, Fiery delivered her "I Am Autism" soliloquy and when coupled with her extraordinary music selection, she once again touched the audience deeply. After the first part of her speech, she played Billy Holiday's "God Bless The Child" and despite the pixels that separate us, the emotions created by the music could be felt. Throughout her performance Fiery spoke of the destruction that autism causes, and thru her music she delivered one of the powerful autism messages of the Blues for Autism fundraiser.

Fiery delivering her passionate message about autism. Bravo "Mama Fi!"

As 5pm turned on the clock, Von Johin took the stage and as in past years he brought his daughter Kelly to sing with him. Kelly has autism and she is a reminder of the human beings behind the word, autism. Before beginning his performance, Kelly sang rock classic "White Rabbit". Then Von began strumming his guitar and singing in his deep, friendly country voice. Von has a powerful, driving style swinging from warm country to hard driving and accented with his spectacular command of the guitar.

Von Johin and his fantastic guitar!

Then came the sassy sounds of The Choo Choo Chicks out of Chattanooga, Tennessee. The Chicks are lead singer Angua Ashbourne, Lotus Melodie on guitar, and Mishkamenges Collazo on keyboard. This is a group that knows who it is and delivers the goods with, "Tight harmonies and a kickin' rhythm section." During their performance they performed classics including "Woman's World", "The Thrill is Gone" and music written by Angua Ashbourne.

The Chicks are great to see and a total delight to hear.

Do you think you know where the bluesy community lives? Next up from Manila in the Philippine Islands was musician/singer, Dakila "Dak" Lacava. As with Von Johin, Dak is a parent of a child, a son with autism. So, for Dak, this was both a performance and a chance to express some of his feelings about autism. When you listen to Dak perform you are at once taken with his command of the piano which he plays with elegance and strength. Dak sang several songs, but his rendition of "What a wonderful world" was powerful and moving.

The engaging Dakila Lacava on stage at Blues for Autism.

By the time the gorgeous Ichie Kamachi (pronounced EE-ChEE-AY) arrived, the night had settled in. And what better way to spend and evening than with the enchanting sounds of Ichie. Ichie sings jazz and blues, and her lovely voice is pure, mellow and seductive. During her performance she sang "Cry me a River", "Ain't No Sunshine When he's Gone" and the very sexy "The Naughty Song". While performing, other musicians joined her on stage with Matt Renfew on drums, Jill Easterman on keys, Dakila Lacava on bass.

The gorgeous Ichie singing her naughty and nice songs.

The final show of the evening was Paul Nowles. Paul is a musician, songwriter, singer with a great sound and a great look. Paul sings mostly classic rock and his style is . Paul opened up with an wonderful, romantic version of "Chasing Cars". Then he demonstrated his range with "Let it Be", "Purple Rain" and even Seger's "Night Moves".

He's good looking and he sings beautifully, he's Paul Knowles

Finally, Miss Luci took the stage for the 2nd time that day, it had been a long day so she drug friends Gracee Beaumont and Destinova Ducatillon to dance with her. Luci continued to enlighten us with Autism facts and statistics. The event total was at 460K+ when she started the hour and challenged everyone to push it over the top to 500k!

It was another spectacular in the Blues Fest concerts. It was a resounding success. At the end of the evening the concert brought in L$500,053 in donations. Thank you to the truly wonderful performers who came, performed and contributed, and a special thanks to those that performers stepped in at the last minute. Thank you to all of the people who came and enjoyed the concert and contributed!!

In addition to the perfomers, we'd like to acknowledge a couple other contributors to this event. First, The stage was the creation of Bluto Brando and his Brando Construction company, way to go Blu! And the entire concert was also streamed into the Junkyard Blues club, thank you Junkyard Blues for extending our reach.

The Final Results
This was the last of the Blues for Autsim 2010 fundraiser events. When Magi McBride, Founder, got the final accounting, BFA had raised a whopping L$1,372,777!!

On behalf of my fellow BFA Organizing Committee Team members, we want to say thank you to Magi McBride for her steadfastness in making this year's fundraiser an outstanding success!!

As always, all funds raised by Blues for Autism are paid to the Autism Society of America in U.S. dollars.

Story & Photos by Yordie Sands

Bluebonnets, Bourbon & Blues

Bluebonnets, Bourbon & Blues event was held under the Maginolia skies at the BFA event site. The lovely and playful Angellica Lemieux was our special DJ for the evening. She kept us rockin' late into the night with her awesome blues.


Everyone started arriving just before dusk. The event site dressed in its blue flowers looked spectacular. With the straw beneath our feet, it gave us extra cushion for a night filled with dancing. Midway into the night, Magi McBride announced our grand total for all BFA events were 660,048 lindens. Even the animals let out a big howl at that announcement.

Here are a few photos from the event.

Cantara Boxer, Molly Montale, Lyndzay Meili and Liz Gealzch (BFA Bazaar designer) danced the night away.

Magi tried to keep Angellica and Leanna in line...but after a few bourbons that proved to be useless.

Yordie Sands and QQ tried to stay clear of the flying cow patties.

Lucinda Bergbaln and Straton Tigerpaw kept the animals speechless with their dance.

As the evening came to a close, our grand total for the BFA 2010 was recorded at 676,198 lindens. What a night!!!

**The BFA staff would like to give a special thanks to Heart and PondLife for donating the blue flowers and stable for this event.

Rockabilly Blues

Rockabilly is one of the earliest style of rock-n-roll music and emerged in the early 1950's. MADCap Blues hosted the event and our lovely Angellica Lemieux was our DJ for the evening. She kicked the evening off with Jerry Lee Lewis "I'm on Fire" song. That set the tone for the evening. After 15 minutes into the event, Magi McBride announced 14,000 lindens had already been raised.

Angellica Lemieux kept the Rockabilly tunes rolling with such artist as Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly, Brian Setzer, Arlen Roth and many more. The Blues for Autism kiosk kept climbing too. By the end of the night we had collected 66,340 lindens. Awesome Job everyone!!!

This was our third event of Blues for Autism 2010. We started the evening with 282,019 lindens donated so far.

Everyone was sporting their hottest rockabilly attire.

Autism is diagnosed in 1 out of 110 children today making it more prevalent than childhood cancers, multiple sclerosis and cystic fibrosis combined. But there is hope. Education and awareness are KEY. Thanks for your support!!!

by Leanna Chaffe

On Blue Bayou

Crawfish, big gators, moonshine stills & other smelly things, little gators, skeeters and a great group of supporters for autism awareness all joined together down On Blue Bayou. It was Sunday night and the gathering was the second in the Blues for Autism 2010 fundraiser events.

The gorgeous DJ Loriiii Shepherd was there spinning an amazing Zydeco, swamp pop and blues set from Buckwheat Zydeco to Fats Domino singing Hello Josephine, and much more. Loriii's show and the great party she helped create put supporters in mood to contribute to this worthy cause.

At a half hour into the evening, Magi McBride reported that total contributions had already reached L$19,895, but that was just the beginning. By the end of the evening, On Blue Bayou had raised an outstanding L$104,000.

 The sun was heading down, gators crawling in and a bunch of cajuns were dancing.

The amazing DJ Loriiii Shepherd spinning tunes for partiers

The crowd swelled with nearly 50 people attending the event.

As evening settled into night, supporters continued to contribute.

There were many reminders of what autism really is throughout the evening. Autism is a condition that can be disabling, but it can be treated. Families with autistic children face stesses that most of us will never know, and it's for those families that we donate and contribute our time. The Blues for Autism team expresses great thanks to the supporters of this campaign.

by Yordie Sands