Memorial event raises funds for new Cedars playground

By Naïma Hill

A vibrant wave of color and heartfelt spirit filled Old City Park as more than 500 community members came together for the second annual Avy’s Sunshine Kite Festival on June 21. The free event is dedicated to honoring all lost loved ones, celebrating life, and raising funds for a much-needed community playground in the Cedars neighborhood of Dallas.

This year’s event brought together dozens of local partners and vendors, passionate volunteers and neighbors from all over Dallas and of all ages for a day filled with kite decorating and flying. Participants also enjoyed face painting, art installations, live DJ music, food, water play and shared stories of love and loss.

Highlights of the day included kid-run lemonade and hot dog stands, interactive partner booths, live mural painting, a wind telephone installation, a huge sunshine photo booth, a sun costume character, free ice creams and paletas, an amazing silent auction, Sunshine Tribe gear and sticker sales, and deeply meaningful kite decorating area where attendees decorated and flew kites in honor of lost loved ones. The community celebrated the lives of grandmas and grandpas, moms, dads, children, brothers, sisters, pets and more.

While final totals are still being tallied, early estimates indicate that the event raised more than $10,000. All funds will go directly toward Avy’s Sunshine Tribe, a nonprofit working to build an inclusive, public playground in the Cedars area of the city. The neighborhood is currently without one.

“We’re building more than a playground,” said event founder and nonprofit board chair Naïma Hill. “We’re building a space where joy, remembrance and belonging can all live side by side, because every child deserves a place to play, and every life lost deserves to be honored with love in action.”

The festival, inspired by the Sumpango Kite Festival in Guatemala, infuses cultural beauty with local purpose. Through grief, sunshine and community connection, Avy’s Sunshine Tribe is turning unimaginable loss into a movement of hope, visibility and collective care.

Avy’s Sunshine Tribe is a Dallas-based nonprofit founded in memory of 22-month-old Aveline Lucille Hill, who was killed in a car crash. The organization works to spread her sunshine and build community through a meaningful signature Kite Festival event and advocacy, including a mission to create a community playground in the Cedars. 

Learn more at AvysSunshineTribe.com.

  Featured