Mission Statement

Sunshine For HIV Kids, Inc. is a nonprofit tax exempt (501c3) organization that identifies and raises funds for charities who directly deliver care to children afflicted with HIV/AIDS and their families.

Sunshine was originally conceived in 1992 by Patricia Smith Hoppen, a Physicians' Assistant experienced with HIV and AIDS patients, and her husband Larry Hoppen, lead singer & cofounder of the rock band ORLEANS. They started Sunshine to "do something" to help. With medical experts, musicians, business & community leaders and concerned citizens, Patty & Larry did found Sunshine For HIV Kids and have been doing that "something" ever since.

Sunshine's mission is to promote awareness of, raise funds for and generally support those organizations which deliver direct quality care to children living with HIV and their families. We do this with musical events (concerts), products (a world class CD), collection and donation of celebrity items for auctions, gifts of money, advice to others on producing fundraiser concerts, various referrals and facilitation of relevant requests. For example, we were the recipient of a baby's quilt donated by a Girl Scout who wanted it to go to an HIV-positive baby. The quilt was turned over to Hudson Valley ARCS and they followed through with this very meaningful gift. On other occasions, the respective winners of free passes to Disney World and a Fitness Center asked us to see that they went to children well enough to use them. We provide free entertainment at Camp sessions whenever possible, also.

Children remain the most vulnerable victims of AIDS. Not only will thousands more contract HIV/AIDS, but many will be orphaned as a result of their parent(s) dying of AIDS. Complacency and apathy are our enemies; they are life threatening!  Sunshine needs your help so it can continue to support those people who help relieve the suffering, work toward a cure and improve the quality of life for these kids.