Gary Mayfield spent more than two months carefully crafting more than 100 wooden crosses inside the Daviess County Detention Center. On Wednesday, he was able to personally deliver some of them to local nursing home residents — an experience he said left him emotional.
“It feels good to be able to see smiles,” Mayfield said. “It just feels good to see people happy about something simple. You know, it’s got a powerful meaning behind it. Just being able to give something back — it feels like you’re doing something good.”
Mayfield, a community custody level inmate, created each cross by hand using a jigsaw, table saw, and Dremel tool, finishing them with a light burn and polyurethane coating. Many of the crosses feature words such as “love,” “hope,” “faith,” “grace,” and “blessed.”
He worked on the project in small increments around his daily responsibilities at the jail.
“A little over two months,” Mayfield said. “But the only reason it really took that long is that I’ve got a lot of different things I do around the jail. I would wake up early and do this for a couple of hours in the morning, then go do my daily activities, and then the next morning do a couple more. Days that I had time, this is what I would do.”
The project was made possible through a partnership between the detention center and Faithful Friends Kentucky, a nonprofit that works to connect community members with nursing home residents who may feel isolated.
Marla Carter with Faithful Friends said the organization focuses on reducing loneliness among seniors.
“We help connect people with nursing homes so that residents don’t feel lonely, forgotten or isolated,” Carter said. “Sixty percent of nursing home residents, statistics say, don’t have a visitor.”
She said the collaboration brings together two often-overlooked groups.
“I think it’s a great partnership because we serve similar groups — people who are often isolated and forgotten,” Carter said. “This is a great way to connect those two groups and help give everyone some dignity.”
Daviess County Jailer Art Maglinger said the Easter-themed project built on previous collaborations between the jail and Faithful Friends.
“This was an Easter project we did for the non-profit, Faithful Friends KY, who ministers to local nursing homes,” Maglinger said. “Mr. Mayfield handcrafted around 100 crosses with a burnt effect for nursing home residents in our community. Each cross had a word of encouragement on it, ranging from hope, faith, love, grace, and blessed.”
Maglinger said the detention center made a rare exception to allow Mayfield to personally deliver the crosses.
“The administration at the nursing home authorized for us to bring him there in person,” Maglinger said. “That’s not something we typically facilitate, where an inmate gets an opportunity for this type of interaction. However, this was a special project, and we wanted it to have the personal touch from the work of his hands.”
He said the gesture carried deeper meaning for many residents.
“A cross is a universal sign of God’s love for us, and it was apparent that this was deeply meaningful to many of these residents,” Maglinger said. “Many of them don’t have regular visitors, so this token of kindness goes a long way to remind them they have value and are loved.”
For Mayfield, the most meaningful part of the experience came when he saw residents receive the crosses.
“It chokes me up,” he said. “I’m just emotional. Just seeing people — because who knows how many of them get regular visitors? This may be the only thing they get from somebody in a while, from the outside. That means a lot.”
Melissa Scott, an activity director at one of the nursing homes, said the visit made a meaningful impact.
“It’s great enjoyment that people in our community want to come here and think about our residents and brighten their day,” Scott said. “I think it will mean a lot, especially knowing someone at the detention center thought about them while making these and came here to pass them out. It will touch their hearts.”
Mayfield said he hopes to continue building a better future, with plans to enter a faith-based recovery program if granted parole and potentially pursue welding.
For now, he said, simply being able to give back was enough.
“I appreciate being trusted to do this,” Mayfield said. “Just being able to see people receive them after putting in the time to make them — it’s cool.”
