Every summer in Austin, people die from heat.
We decided that wasn't okay.
Hi, we're Emily and Calvin. We're students in Austin, and we started 512°F because we learned that people in our city are getting seriously sick — and sometimes dying — from heat that we barely notice from inside our air-conditioned homes. We wanted to do something real about it. This project is part of a year-long civic leadership program, and everything we do is student-led, research-based, and community-focused. We believe young people have a role to play in making Austin safer for everyone.
MISSION STATEMENT
512°F exists to help unhoused people in Austin — and their pets — stay safe and comfortable during extreme heat by providing simple, practical cooling support, because no one should suffer or die from heat.
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Last summer, Austin hit 100+ degrees 73 days. Between 2018 and 2023, nearly two dozen unhoused Austin neighbors died from heat exposure. We spent months researching, making calls, and listening to the people who do this work every day. We chose two partners because heat safety has two sides: getting to people who are already outside in dangerous heat, and giving people a place to go before it gets dangerous.
Austin Mutual Aid runs a Water Brigade that goes to where our unhoused neighbors are, at camps, under bridges, and on the streets, bringing cold water, cooling supplies, and care kits directly to them. In Austin's heat, the walk to a cooling center can itself be dangerous. AMA doesn't wait for people to make that walk.
Trinity Center operates a cooling center in a gymnasium at St. David's Church downtown, open four days a week, where people can come inside to air conditioning, take a shower, eat a meal, and rest. Last summer they had over 6,000 visits. People come before the heat becomes an emergency, which means Trinity Center is doing the critical work of preventative care.
One partner reaches people where they are. The other gives people a place to be. Together, they cover both sides of heat safety and that's why 512°F supports both.
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We're building over 1,000 cooling kits this summer. Each kit includes a professional-grade cooling towel, a bucket hat, insect repellent, aloe vera, sunglasses, electrolyte packets, and a handwritten note of care from a student.
For Austin Mutual Aid, we're providing a refrigerated trailer stocked with cold water for the hottest days, rolling coolers, kits, and paid stipends for a two-person volunteer distribution team so they can reach people who can't get to a cooling center on their own.
For Trinity Center, we're providing kits, electrolyte drinks, and laundry service support for the towels used for the daily showers they provide the neighbors so their staff and volunteers can focus on the people walking through the door and keep the cooling center open longer instead of spending hours taking towels in their cars to the laundromat each day.
Both partners helped design what goes in the kits. We asked them what their neighbors actually need, and we built around their answers.
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Every kit costs about $10.50 to make. Every $10.50 you donate puts another kit in someone's hands.
You can also help by writing notes to include in the packets we make. Words of care for our Austin neighbors can be just as important to receive. Please hand these to Emily or Calvin by no later than May 31, 2026.
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© 2026 512*F, a project by Moore Family Charitable Foundation