Crossroads Mission Launches Water Drive for Yuma's Vulnerable in Extreme Heat

Crossroads Mission went through hundreds of pallets of donated water in a single summer and used every drop. The Yuma nonprofit is not waiting until June to find itself running short: its Summer Water Drive is now underway, seeking community donations weeks before the Sonoran Desert reaches peak heat.

The faith-based organization, founded in 1959 as a group kitchen effort and now a multi-service operation on South Arizona Avenue, distributes water at its shelter, at outreach events, and through the Second Chance Thrift Store at 550 W. Eighth Street. Services extend to shelter beds, meals, clothing, substance abuse detoxification, and transitional housing for Yuma County's most vulnerable residents year-round.

The volume of need is documented in the organization's own numbers. In summer 2025, Executive Director Myra Garlit described the strain mid-season: "We are running low. We have about 220 that eat lunch here, have about 140 or 150 that eat dinner here." The prior year, Public Affairs Director Barbara Rochester put the scale of donations, and their limits, in plain terms: "I don't know how many pallets of water was donated last year. A tremendous amount, I'd say hundreds, hundreds of palettes of water last year, and we went through it all."

Yuma's climate makes hydration a matter of life and death for people without reliable shelter or cooling. The city is recognized as the Sunniest City on Earth, logging 91 percent of possible daylight hours, roughly 4,055 hours a year, against barely three inches of annual rainfall. The average July high is 105.3°F. The all-time recorded temperature of 124°F, set on July 28, 1995, remains one of the highest reliably documented readings for any U.S. city. Last summer pushed the baseline further: meteorological summer 2024, spanning June through August, was the hottest Yuma had recorded since tracking began in 1878, and the hottest Arizona had seen statewide.

The statewide mortality data underscores why that matters. In Maricopa County, heat-related deaths climbed from 76 in 2013 to 645 in 2023. The final 2024 count recorded 608 confirmed heat-related deaths, with 49 percent of the deceased experiencing homelessness at the time and more than three-quarters dying outdoors. Yuma County's 2025 Point-in-Time count identified 77 people experiencing homelessness, down from 119 in 2023, a reduction local advocates attribute in part to improved services. Job loss and inability to pay rent or a mortgage were the two leading reasons people reported becoming homeless, with most of those counted between the ages of 45 and 64.

Case donations are being accepted at the Mission's main campus at 944 S. Arizona Avenue and at the Second Chance Thrift Store at 550 W. Eighth Street. Pallet volumes go to the Mission's Ark Warehouse at the main campus, Monday through Friday between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. Financial contributions are also accepted online. Both locations are official City of Yuma designated cooling centers, open to any member of the public seeking respite from the heat, not just shelter residents.

Community organizations have answered the call in past summers. The Southwest Street Scene Car Club delivered just under 300 cases in June 2021, and Gutierrez Canales Engineering ran its own employee collection in May 2024. The Mission is again encouraging businesses and neighborhood groups to organize their own drives before demand peaks and the supply, however large, runs dry.