about us
Eveline’s Sunshine Cottage provides housing, love, and encouragement, to homeless and low-income single-parent families; inspiring them to seek an education, two generations at a time, thus moving the whole family off the government system.
our mission
We currently have ten fully furnished properties all in the same block of the beautiful, historic, Amarillo College area.
the cottages
Our Moms are working towards degrees in many fields, including: education, nursing, criminal justice, psychology, and counseling.
the moms
Our children are active in sports, cheerleading, academics, scouts, church, and a host of other activities.
the children
meet Eveline
Eveline Rivers-McCoy was born in Little Rock Arkansas and raised in Kentucky. She attended the University of Arkansas where she met her basketball playing husband Wade. She has lived in Amarillo, Texas for over 50 years and this is where she raised their three children.
When her children were school aged, Eveline learned of a local family who was in need of coats. The children were not attending school because they didn’t have a warm coat to wear. The need to help that family during the Christmas Holidays grew into a large non-profit for Eveline. She realized all that was standing between a select group of children and an education was a warm coat, so she began collecting them. Eveline River’s Christmas Project started in 1979 helping 43 children and now gives over 2,500 warm coats annually and provides Christmas Gifts to over 6,000 economically disadvantaged children each year. The primary mission is to improve educational outcomes and supply basic childhood needs.
From this project Eveline created a 2nd non profit organization, Eveline’s Sunshine Cottage. The idea was to provide a safe stable place for homeless or extremely low income single parent families to obtain a college education, become stable and get off the government system. There are currently eight homes.
Through volunteerism many honors have been bestowed on Eveline Rivers-McCoy, she was named “Woman of the Year”, by the Amarillo Globe News, she received a “7 Who Care Award from the Volunteer Action Center of United Way, was the National Association of Social Workers, “Public Citizen of the Year” for the whole state of Texas, received the Governor’s “Volunteer Award” for the state of Texas, and many more. Eveline’s Sunshine Cottage was selected by the Aspen Institute, in Washington DC, to represent the state of Texas, as an example of their philosophy of raising people out of poverty through education two generations at a time. Her most cherished honor was being selected to help carry the Olympic Torch as it progressed across the United States on its way to the 2002 Winter Olympics.
