Welcome to Avy's Sunshine Tribe!

The mission of Avy's Sunshine Tribe is to serve communities by constructing outdoor recreational playgrounds and playscapes that provide play spaces for children of all ages. We are dedicated to facilitating communities of support and social connection through meetups and public events in honor of our lost loved ones. 

Our Goals: 

1. To establish playgrounds and playscapes in needed neighborhoods 

2. To promote and foster wellness through outdoor engagement within local communities 

3. To facilitate communities of grief support through meetups and public events in honor of our lost loved ones. 

4. To develop alliances with other nonprofits, community organizations, local businesses, and governmental agencies to enhance our communities. 

Aveline Lucille Hill (Avy) was killed in a car crash on May 17, 2023. She was just 22 months old. Avy was full of sunshine and sass and is desperately missed by her momma, family, friends, and community. We are turning our anguish into action and working to build a playground in her honor and memory while also hosting communal grief events to lean into our lost loved ones. 

In short, A long one! Here's a general breakdown and if you'd like to learn more or see a space you can help out in please reach out to us and our board at AvysSunshineTribe@gmail.com 

1. Meet with city to see if it's a possibility and get general donation goal (done, Feb 2024) 

2. Raise Funds! (currently doing and our goal is currently a moving target!) 

3. Engage with the community and gather support (currently doing and Avy's Sunshine Kite Festival was a success!) 

4. All the "paperwork" stuff. Put together an amazing women led board, build a website, design a logo, open a nonprofit bank account, etc. (Done!) 

5. Form a nonprofit - DONE! We are a 501c3!

6. Find Partners and Sponsors to help us reach our goals! (currently looking - email us if you're interested!) 

7. Work with playground companies to get more information on playground architecture, general budget, process, etc (currently "shopping" around) 

7. Work with the city on partnership, paperwork, commitment, etc. 

And then after all of that... Then we would choose playground/playscape companies and content and start the actual build process.

This would also be the time we design what the playscape will look like, how we will acknowledge sponsors and donors, name the space, etc.

*Remember this is all a general idea. This gives you an idea of the immensity of the project! 

In the Cedars, Dallas, Texas. It's a growing neighborhood that does not have a public playground/playscape and it's ready for one! We would love to utilize the green space available at Old City Park or the city owned land across the street at the "Pocket Park" but have not gotten official approval for either. 

In short, an awesome one. :) 

Naïma's background is in environmental education and she has vast experience in understanding how children of all ages utilize outdoor play spaces for physical, social, and cognitive growth. 

We also aim to build a playspace that "fits" into our arts filled community of the cedars. 

On our board team are also strengths from child development, nonprofit fundraising, partnerships, and financials. We are working to get this project to the finish line! 

YES! After many months of work, we got our official designation letter from the IRS in September of 2024. 

IRS EIN# = 99-2744243

Contact us! There are lots of ways to connect with us, for example companies can sponsor our kite festival event, host a table at the event, donate to the raffle, or on the playground side, connect us with individuals who can help, help support our efforts with the city, and down the line provide meaningful sponsorships for the actual playground. As we work through the process we will provide more specific opportunities for this. For now, reach out to us and let us know where you can help out! 

1. Here on the website is easiest! Click the donate today link above and use your credit or debit card. Please consider giving a tip to cover transaction fees too, that way we have more to help our goals! 
2. If you'd like to use paypal or venmo or are just more familiar with gofundme you can give there. That's where we started and it's still up and running - visit Avy's Memorial Playground GoFundMe. 
3. If you're making a large donation, please reach out to use at AvysSunshineTribe@gmail.com so we can discuss the easiest way for you as well as one that saves the fees! (electronic transfer or check) 

In short, we're not sure yet. But we do currently plan to have donor acknowledgement in the playground and are excited to create the opportunites for this. We will update when we have this put together! 

First: We are so sorry to hear of your loss and know the impact this can have on you. We open arms welcome you into our Sunshine Tribe community. Please do join us at our communal grief events where you can honor your lost loved one. Another great way is to share our work on social media to help spread the leaning into grief message we portray. Others have helped fundraise, donated time, etc. 

If you feel led to join us and become a volunteer reach out to us at AvysSunshineTribe@gmail.com 

Your Outside Life Is the LLC Naïma started years ago but didn't utilize until Fall 2023. After Avy was killed Naïma started creating art turned into stickers with Avy's name in them. This grew into other products that celebrated Avy's sunshine with all profits going to raise money for the playground. The first round of stickers in Fall 2023 raised $700 and we were off! 

For now, all the products still live on the YourOutsideLife.com site. As we work to tease these apart expect to see changes of where you find goodies! 

See the FAQ above but in short at YourOutsideLife.com

There's so many ways - you choose what speaks to you and how you'd like to spread Avy Sunshine around the world. Here's some options to join the Sunshine Tribe: 

1. Share this website and our story on your social media pages to help us spread the word! 
2. Follow us on our social media pages and engage by liking, commenting, sharing (AvysSunshineTribe Instagram and YourOutsideLife TikTok) 
3. Volunteer to help out putting together our kite festival event! We are in need of people to help with sponsors, vendors, artists, and more! (email us for information) 
4. Think about hosting a satellite Kite Festival next year! 
5. Reach out to your city council member in support of our project and goal! 
6. Donate or gather donations from friends, family, community members, etc! 
7. Get your Sunshine Tribe Gear (hats, shirts, tanks, etc) and rep your gear all over! Share your pics with us to add to our Avy's Sunshine Google Map! 
8. Lean into your own loss and join our honoring community! Engage with us on social media and we'd love to hear your stories. We need to come up with a great way to share the amazing stories from the kite festival! 
9. Use your expertise to help - do you have grant writing experience? Finance? Etc. Please reach out to see how you can help! 

Thank you Sunshine Tribe Community!