DREAMWORLD NORTH – AM Radio, the builder of The Far Away, or The Wheatfield, turns his head to have a look at two visitors to his sim: A photographer and her model doing a fashion shoot.

”A lot of people come here to take pictures,” Radio said. ”And most of them decide to make a donation to the Heifer charity.”

Thereaver Barrymore, the photographer at work this day, says she chose to shoot in The Far Away after seeing other people’s pictures at Flickr.

”It’s an amazing build, so beautiful,” she says, and gives L$50 to Radio.

To date, SL residents have donated 1300 USD.  That gives, Radio says, equals 2.73 cows that the Heifer International – a non-profit organization whose goal is to help end world hunger and poverty through self-reliance and sustainability will donate in their worldwide effort.

”They tend to focus on agricultural work, and I thought that suited the theme of the sim, a farm,” Radio said. The Far Away is actually based on the surroundings of his homeplace in Illinois.

Donations can be given in three ways. The easiest is to buy one of the copies of the build from the vendor that floats over the field. The prices range from L$1000 to 3500, depending on what items one wishes to purchase with the field. 

Those not wanting their own wheat field can donate directly to Heifer by clicking on the information section of the vendor, which leads directly to Radio’s Heifer team page. The third option is to pay him directly. ”There’s a guy that pays me 5–20 lindens every time he visits The Far Away. That’s generous,” Radio said.

He’s quite amazed by the success the sim has had. ”The original goal was just to raise money for one cow, so to be on the third is astounding,” he said. 

He also finds it quite amazing to be able to use SL in such a way. ”I really don’t sell anything in SL. So when people started asking for the wheat, I decided to try this. I wasn’t expecting the response that I got.”

Radio never even intended The Far Away to be a public place. He built it for himself, as his own, private Idaho, but his friend Bettina Tizzy persuaded him to make it public. Luckily, she had just enough space in her Dreamworld North for him to rez it there, with 30 prims left over after it was laid out.

In real life, Radio works for IBM, but he’s also travels a lot to do charity. While you read this, he’s in New Orleans building dry walls for the flood victims.