Statement of Purpose and Intent



On March 12th, 2011 I began a 400 mile trek along the Arizona-Mexico border from Agua Prieta to San Luis Rio Colorado, an adventure with a purpose I am calling BorderVenture.

Through BorderVenture I hope to raise awareness of border issues, expose exaggeration of border violence, combat the racial profiling, discrimination, and often outright racism that seems prevalent of late, and to record and recount personal stories of people living near or trying to cross the border. I will record my experiences and stories in this blog, and hope to have them further covered by supportive media, organizations, and other websites and blogs. I plan to aggressively publish my experiences through media outlets, interested groups, the Internet, and through whatever other avenues I am able. I will write tirelessly and advocate my findings to all who will listen, publish, and share them.


Monday, March 7, 2011

BorderVenture Updates

So just a quick update on everything.  I still plan to start on March 12th, but I'll be going down to San Luis Rio Colorado two days early to leave some food and water stashes (must-stashes, if I may) for the last few legs of the journey.  I must apologize for the recent lack of posts here, I've been busy with preparations and meetings, etc to organize BorderVenture and spread the word.  I have mapped the approximate route out Google Earth and will try to get the route up and public in the next day or two so that you can follow along a bit better.  This week is the big push, so please share this blog and the Facebook page with your friends, and if you happen to have media contacts, please let them know if you think BorderVenture should be their next story.

If you've followed on the Facebook page at all, you probably saw that I've picked up some local Flagstaff sponsors:  Run Flagstaff, Peace Surplus, and Aspen Sports, all of whom made generous donations of much-needed gear, food, and supplies to the cause, so big thanks to them!  Another exciting piece of news: at the behest and purchasing of friends, I will now be traveling with a SPOT Satellite GPS Messenger.  For those of you who don't know what that means, it is a small GPS-like device that uses a satellite connection to alert people of your location and your status, and can also be used to alert emergency personnel when you have the "uh oh" feeling that you might be in a bit of trouble.  Mine (affectionately named "Spotnik"- thanks Dave) will be set up to contact several friends, to send updates to the BorderVenture Facebook page, and will also update a map with my check-in locations as I go on my SPOT Shared Page.  I'll put up the link in the blog sidebar to the right when I have everything set up and working, and you'll be able to follow along with live progress updates from the border.  Unfortunately it only allows for one pre-programmed check-in message, but I'll be able to give more thorough updates on goings-on via text when service is available (this is the real test, Verizon!) and wireless internet if available in border towns.  I think this is pretty exciting, and it will certainly add to the whole personal safety side of things, so thanks friends!  And an additional thanks to the folks at Pauli! Inc., whose generous donation made it possible to purchase the satellite service plan necessary to use the SPOT device.

Many thanks for the continued interest and support!
-Evan