Around Azeroth: Dear hearts and gentle people
by Elizabeth Wachowski 
Sep 11th 2011 at 10:00AM
The screenshot I am submitting is not a picture of an odd graphical quirk or the result of perfect timing hitting the print screen button. Rather, this screenshot is an awesome display of people who do not all know each other but all share a common hobby in playing WoW, coming together for a cause.
In 2005, my partner Caralynn lost her mother to ovarian cancer. I stood in the room with her, holding her while her mother lost her battle. Since that moment, Cara has been wanting to do something in honor of her mother, something to raise awareness about this form of cancer and get the message to other people. About a month ago, Cara had seen something that had reminded her of her mother. She began talking about wanting to do something to honor her mother. I had an idea. I ran over to the tabard vendor in Stormwind. I started looking through the various tabard colors, and then I found it: teal. Teal is the color of ovarian cancer awareness. I thought, "What if for a day, we changed our guild tabard color to teal? What if we got our friends to join in too?" I ran the idea by Cara. It would be something to honor the memory of her mother and to raise awareness. She liked the idea very much. Then we thought, maybe this could be bigger. Our server has a Facebook group. Cara posted the idea on the page and on the forums. We got quite a few responses. One of our guildmates, Renewyou, got the word out to even more people. She posted on other gaming websites and talked to other friends from other servers. We received responses from many people we've never met but were supporting this idea and changing their guild tabards. Our little project was growing.
Cara decided on a day for everyone wanting to participate to change their guild tabards and take screen shot. September 8th was the perfect day. It was her mother's birthday. Even more perfect, September is ovarian cancer awareness month. Most of us participating on Draenor met on Lordamere Lake in Silverpine. Cara cried when she saw the group waiting on the water there. They had all changed their guild tabards. We began trying to make a ribbon for the screen shot. We had almost completed it when we saw a few Horde flying about. Cara cried again when she saw they had changed their tabards too. After a quick change to a Horde alt by Totentanz of Blackwatch of Azeroth to fill in the newcomers on the plan, we had a teal ribbon made of Horde and Alliance, of friends and strangers, of people who came together for this great cause. It was the most touching experience I've ever been a part of in this game.
I would like to thank everyone that participated. I don't remeber all the names but I do remember some of the guilds: Blue Recluse, Blackwatch of Azeroth, Forsaken Dreams, Solitares, Ifudayre, Caustic, Psychosis, Fallen Kings of Exile (who were raiding when we took the screenshot but changed their guild tabards and took screenshots while in Firelands), Tempest of Runetotem (US-H) and The Hand of Mograine on Argent Dawn (EU-H). I know I had to have missed some guilds and names either by not remembering them all or because I didn't know they had participated, but to anyone who honored this idea, thank you, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. You made this night very special.
Want to see your own screenshot here? Send it to aroundazeroth@wowinsider.com. We strongly prefer full-sized pictures with no UI or names showing. Please include "Azeroth" in the subject line so your email doesn't get marked as spam, and include your name, guild and server if you want to be credited.
Filed under: Around Azeroth
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Imnick Sep 11th 2011 10:06AM
Tavros is that you?
Bellajtok Sep 11th 2011 10:11AM
I'm not crying! But... Yeah. I wish I'd been there.
Zanaji Sep 11th 2011 11:16AM
not crying either... but it's close
AudreyR Sep 11th 2011 10:13AM
That is a beautiful story. Thank you so much for sharing this. :)
Poppy Sep 11th 2011 10:43AM
Lovely story:)
Harvoc Sep 11th 2011 10:47AM
Very sad story yet uplifting that people would come together to do this.
Mortenebra Sep 11th 2011 11:18AM
Thank you for this story.
No, don't mind me. This is just... allergies. Need to dust around my computer, is all. /sniffle
Iirdan Sep 11th 2011 11:33AM
I was going to come in here and say that the image reminded me of Donnie Darko, but after reading that story, I much prefer the intended purpose of the image.
Perhaps the most touching story regarding WoW I've ever read. Thank you very much for sharing, and may you continue to find happiness through the game.
Rubitard Sep 11th 2011 11:39AM
This, to a t.
Aquizit Sep 11th 2011 11:56AM
Quite appropriate on a day like today.
Remember: Horde, Alliance, pro, casual, PvP, raiding.
We all play the same game.
poggg Sep 11th 2011 12:00PM
"lost her battle"
Hnnngh...am I the only one bothered by this term? It seems somehow...degrading. Like they're saying the cancer victim wasn't strong enough. I've always felt it's just kind of an unpleasant term.
Still, that's irrelevant. This is a very nice story.
Bart Sep 11th 2011 1:24PM
Why the downvoting? He has a valid point.
Saeadame Sep 11th 2011 2:07PM
I think the downvoting is kind of a "there's a time and a place, and this isn't it" sort of thing.
Caralynn Sep 11th 2011 5:40PM
I'm the Caralynn that helped to organize this event. It was my mother that was being honored/remembered. "Lost her battle" is a subjective way of putting that. I could have said that my mother succumbed to her disease. You see, for her, "lost her battle" isn't really the right term. My mother never knew she had ovarian cancer. For that matter, none of us did, until the day she died. She had diabetes and fibromyalgia, both of which masked the symptoms of ovarian cancer (frequent urination, pain in abdomen). The one symptom that tipped us off that something was wrong, was the brownish liquid that she aspirated on. The day we took her off the respirator was the day that we learned what had killed my mother. Had she known that she had ovarian cancer, she would have given it a run for it's money. Things like this are the reason I wanted to do something like this.
There are so many things about ovarian cancer that are unfair. For instance, according to the National Ovarian Cancer Alliance, 21,000 women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer this year. Of those 21,000, 15,000 will die. Also, unlike many cancers that have a screening test, ovarian cancer does not. There is a blood test that can help determine your risk for ovarian cancer, but insurance does not cover it, because most insurance companies feel that it is an elective test. Helping raise awareness will help raise money for research, which will help develop a test that can screen for this horrible disease.
So his/her comment, which as some believe may have a time and place, isn't entirely wrong. She did lose her battle, but only because she never had a chance to fight.
Al Sep 12th 2011 2:44AM
Really? Your response was to split hairs about the word usage?
smileygirl247 Sep 12th 2011 4:35PM
Actually no, my response was to try to defend him. It was also to try and educate people on here. Not really sure where you got that I was trying to split hairs.
samhain Sep 11th 2011 12:34PM
When I saw the screenshot, at first I thought they were doing the Ultima Online logo.
Then I read the post and thought it was even more remarkable.
LeepinLeemur Sep 11th 2011 12:40PM
+1 for Stephen Foster
I also thought it was Darko at first.
Amazing story!
Morgatho Sep 11th 2011 1:16PM
This right here, is proof that gamers are not ass wholes, I tip my hat to you sir and all the people that joined in.
Jaq Sep 11th 2011 1:50PM
What a lovely story. Well done, all. :D