Gallatin Refugee Connections hosts kit packing day for refugees coming to Montana

Volunteers arrived at Pilgrim Congregational United Church of Christ bright and early on Saturday morning and immediately got to work carrying heavy boxes full of everything from pots and pans to bedding to baby supplies into the church.

Everything a family would need to comfortably start a new life.

The volunteers were at the church for refugee kit packing day. The event and entire kit drive was organized by Gallatin Refugee Connections.

Shelly Batey is the volunteer coordinator for the kit drive.

“I feel really positive about what we do,” she said.

She’s been volunteering with GRC for the last five years. Her daughter had an internship with the International Refugee Committee and told Batey about kit packing day years ago.

“I’m always overwhelmed with the donations, people are so giving and kind,” she said.

GRC created lists of kits and encouraged people to donate full kits or individual items at different businesses and organizations around Bozeman. Volunteers on kit-packing day check items off the list and make sure boxes are full of the required items before the kits are wrapped tightly in Saran Wrap for transport.

Marty Albini is a kit packing coordinator.

“We plan for this all year. It’s nice to see it happen,” he said.

GRC came about because of the high cost of living in Gallatin Valley. It was started by the Gallatin Interfaith Association as a smaller project and then spun off on its own.

All items collected in this drive will go to Billings because no refugees are coming to Bozeman this year. A larger influx of refugees is typical for Billings because the cost of living is lower, and it’s more of an agricultural community ("refugee" is an official government status, as opposed to immigrant).

“But there are so many people in Bozeman who are so passionate about welcoming refugees that this is the way that they support us,” Sarah Moyer said.

Sarah Moyer works for Lutheran Family Services Rocky Mountains, one of two refugee resettlement organizations in Montana that have contracts with the federal government. Global Refuge, its parent organization, started settling refugees from Germany and Eastern Europe during World War II.

This is the second time Moyer has come to Bozeman for a welcome kit drive. Last time, they filled up half of a U-Haul with supplies.

“It speaks to the community and how passionate they feel about providing the work of welcome even though they’re not daily interacting with our clients,” Moyer said.

“It’s incredibly generous.”

Lutheran Family Services Rocky Mountains is headquartered in Denver but provides services to people in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Montana. When its office first opened, refugees would come from places like Afghanistan, Venezuela, Syria, Iraq and Ukraine.

“With this administration, almost all of our previous populations are on a travel ban right now,” Moyer said.

Billings is welcoming refugee families from South Africa under a C3 visa exception. The U.S. Department of State describes these visas as “nonimmigrant visas for persons traveling in immediate and continuous transit through the United States en route to another country, with few exceptions.”

As of 2025, there were 36.4 million refugees worldwide, according to The UN Refugee Agency.