Randy Mayer
Green Valley-Sahuarita Samaritan Founder, Leader
by Kathy Babcock
Randy Mayer knew exactly where he was going in 1998 when he accepted a call to the Good Shepherd United Church of Christ in Sahuarita, Arizona. His family had lived in Albuquerque when Randy was very young, and his father had a fascination with the desert and the culture of the Southwest. Family vacations often brought the Mayers to Arizona to visit family and to explore the borderlands and Mexico.
Randy and his wife Norma met at college in Billings, Montana, and connected again in graduate school, after Randy had spent time studying in Costa Rica. By the time they married , they both knew they wanted to live close to the Mexican border.
The Sanctuary Movement in the early 80's left a committed cadre of activists that Randy got to know soon after he arrived. He participated in the launch of Humane Borders in 2000. With members of the Good Shepherd, Randy deployed the first water station in Rio Rico, leaving food, sweaters, water and blankets for migrants. From that day forward, the Good Shepherd UCC supported Randy in humanitarian efforts to prevent migrants from dying in the desert.
Tucson Samaritans formed in 2002 to search weekly for migrants and render aid, and by 2004 the number of migrants dying in the desert was increasing. With the Unitarian Universalists in Green Valley, BorderLinks, and the Good Shepherd, Randy and activists from Tucson hosted the first Border Issues Fair in January 2005. The community interest and turnout was strong and Randy got the go-ahead from the Good Shepherd Council to start a Green Valley/Sahuarita Samaritan group.
Under Randy's leadership, more than 100 members of the community conduct weekly Searches in the desert for lost travelers, collect the belongings left behind by migrants, volunteer at the Kino Project in Nogales, Sonora, and leave caches of water along trails migrants are known to travel.
When asked about meeting migrants in the desert, Randy remembers the little groups of families, grandmothers, babes in arms, teenagers, mothers and fathers. He never comes away unmoved by the human tragedy that is taking place in the borderlands. He knows he is doing God's work every time he goes into the desert.
Randy and his wife Norma met at college in Billings, Montana, and connected again in graduate school, after Randy had spent time studying in Costa Rica. By the time they married , they both knew they wanted to live close to the Mexican border.
The Sanctuary Movement in the early 80's left a committed cadre of activists that Randy got to know soon after he arrived. He participated in the launch of Humane Borders in 2000. With members of the Good Shepherd, Randy deployed the first water station in Rio Rico, leaving food, sweaters, water and blankets for migrants. From that day forward, the Good Shepherd UCC supported Randy in humanitarian efforts to prevent migrants from dying in the desert.
Tucson Samaritans formed in 2002 to search weekly for migrants and render aid, and by 2004 the number of migrants dying in the desert was increasing. With the Unitarian Universalists in Green Valley, BorderLinks, and the Good Shepherd, Randy and activists from Tucson hosted the first Border Issues Fair in January 2005. The community interest and turnout was strong and Randy got the go-ahead from the Good Shepherd Council to start a Green Valley/Sahuarita Samaritan group.
Under Randy's leadership, more than 100 members of the community conduct weekly Searches in the desert for lost travelers, collect the belongings left behind by migrants, volunteer at the Kino Project in Nogales, Sonora, and leave caches of water along trails migrants are known to travel.
When asked about meeting migrants in the desert, Randy remembers the little groups of families, grandmothers, babes in arms, teenagers, mothers and fathers. He never comes away unmoved by the human tragedy that is taking place in the borderlands. He knows he is doing God's work every time he goes into the desert.