It’s 8 a.m. in Nogales, Arizona, as 19-year-old Maryvillian Kirksey Dalen Croft [Bonner Scholar from Maryville College] loads the back of a vehicle with supplies for an all-day mission.
She and some others head out for the scorching desert to make water drops for migrants who might be trying to make their way from Mexico and into the United States. On some nights, they camp in the desert. She doesn’t meet any travelers on this trek, but evidence of their presence is starkly evident. As they walk along one of the trails used by the migrants, crosses and memorials come into plain view.
“We’re walking in the middle of nowhere in the desert and all of a sudden, there are six crosses right there,” she said by phone Thursday. “Seeing them became normal even though this is so not normal.”
Read full story here in the Blount County newspaper The Daily Times, by Melanie Tucker Jul 11, 2019