The project, “Cross Country for Community Care,” will serve as the foundation for his eventual senior thesis at Brown, where he is a rising junior. 

“There was a limit to what I could do from my classroom in Rhode Island,” Kirby said. “I wanted to go down and see how communities survive, how they struggle and how they find happiness.”

With oversight from his faculty adviser Alexandria Macmadu, an assistant professor of epidemiology, Kirby’s project is helping him advance his concentration in public health at Brown, where he also works as a member of Brown Emergency Medical Services and is a member of the men’s varsity swimming and diving team. Off campus, he’s an avid cyclist, an EMT with the Bristol Fire Department and a counselor for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. 

Building connections, mile by mile

Kirby began his trip on May 21 from the coastal Florida city of St. Augustine with the goal of arriving at his terminal destination, San Diego, California, within three months. 

Before leaving, Kirby spent months mapping nearly every mile of the route. He planned campsites and rest days, researched roads with safe shoulders, identified bike shops along the way and coordinated volunteer placements. Just as intentionally, he built flexibility into the itinerary, leaving buffer days to linger and explore. 

Kirby’s first nonprofit was the Spectrum Center in Hattiesburg, Mississippi — the state’s only LGBTQ+ community center. Run entirely by volunteers, the center provides care through community events and resources, like a 24-hour free food pantry and a community clothing closet. 

During his stay, Kirby helped organize the center’s Pride Month kickoff cookout, installed new flooring, co-led a first-aid and CPR skill-share event and sorted through heaps of clothing donations to revamp the community closet, while simultaneously volunteering for a local domestic abuse shelter and homeless outreach group. 

While manning tables at the Mississippi Gulf Coast Pride celebration, Kirby was struck by how much volunteers were able to provide despite limited resources. 

“I felt like my perspective on the South and what it’s like to be queer there just absolutely unraveled,” said Kirby, who identifies as queer. “I was struck by how they responded to the problem of not being cared for by the system. It was like, ‘OK, if you’re not going to support us, we’ll do it ourselves. We’ll take care of each other.’” 

Though most of his volunteering and community engagement work takes place when he’s embedded in one of the nonprofits, Kirby said he’s been trying to find ways to incorporate it into his day-to-day as he traverses hundreds of miles between stops. Along the way, Kirby has arranged visits to hospices and long-term care facilities, where he plays piano or sings — he performed the national anthem on the Fourth of July — for residents and patients. 

In many ways, the trip is an exercise in vulnerability. He has battled extreme weather — from unrelenting sun on a 116-degree day to torrential downpours and flooding — navigational hiccups, interrupted routes, mechanical issues and a string of flat tires. 

Throughout the trip, Kirby has found himself on the receiving end of community care. Firefighters have welcomed him into their local stations to sleep safely overnight. A convenience store worker offered him free drinks and snacks after learning about the project. When Tropical Storm Arthur passed over him, a stranger paid for Kirby to sleep in a hotel room. Fellow cyclists, on their own long-distance rides, joined him for stretches of road, and drivers rolled down their windows to cheer him on. 

“I feel like I now understand firsthand the strength that communities find within themselves and all of the kindness that people give to each other,” Kirby said.

His second stop is Eagle Pass, Texas, where Kirby is currently volunteering with the Frontera Federation, a young grassroots organization focused on healthcare access, mutual aid and community engagement in the borderlands. Drawing on his background in emergency medical services, his primary role is assisting the town’s only primary care provider who makes house calls. 

“The challenges here are so great that I know, realistically, I’m not going to make a profound difference in my short time here,” Kirby said. “But if I can make a patient feel more comfortable or be the reason someone is smiling … those micro-moments of care keep me going.” 

Welcome detours and lasting lessons

Like that sweltering Sunday morning in a Chattahoochee church, saying “yes” led Kirby to places he never anticipated.

With about two days left in the ride to Eagle Pass, someone told him about a four-day pilgrimage organized by Tsuru for Solidarity, an organization led by Japanese Americans that mobilizes descendants of World War II internment camp survivors to advocate for modern immigrant communities. It was a welcome detour for Kirby, who joined the group.

Together, they walked roughly 40 miles from Crystal City, Texas, the site of a former World War II internment camp, to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement family detention facility in Dilley, Texas. As a member of the group’s medical team, Kirby treated blisters, handed out water and monitored participants for heat exhaustion. 

Kirby said the most powerful moment came as the group drew nearer to the facility but ducked into a gas station for shelter as border patrol officials approached. After speaking with the agents and determining it was safe to continue, they stepped back outside into the sun. Before they moved forward, they started singing. 

“Canto mi compromiso de caminar contigo porque tu vida es sagrada para mí,” Kirby recalled. “I sing my commitment, arm in arm beside you, because your life is sacred to me.” 

At the facility, he said children were singing along from the other side of the fence. 

Kirby will leave Eagle Pass in mid-July for his final nonprofit, Silver City Street Outreach in Silver City, New Mexico. His journey will culminate in San Diego, California, where family members plan to meet him in late August. 

Just a week or two later, he’ll begin his junior year at Brown, where he plans to compile his summer research into a rigorous, thematic analysis that will eventually inform his thesis. The project is just the beginning of a long-term commitment to community engagement work, said Kirby, who plans to apply to medical school after earning his bachelor’s degree.

“I want to take the lessons I’ve learned and bring them back to my life,” he said. “There’s no way I can just sit on the sidelines and call it a day. I need to be involved.”