On Monday and Wednesday mornings, you can find Catherine Card heading out to pick up unhoused residents at the Salvation Army shelter to take them to church—not for a service, but for a hot shower.
“Homelessness really is morally and ethically a huge issue for Billings,” Card says.
Watch the video of this story below:
Their destination is Bethlehem Lutheran Church, where they head inside for something most of us take for granted.
“It’s been about three or four weeks since I’ve really had a hot shower,” James Allen says. He’s been staying at one of the Billings shelters on these cold nights, but there’s little chance for a shower.
“I do appreciate what they are doing allowing us to come in and take a hot shower. It’s very important because I don’t like being smelly. And I like to stay halfway presentable just in case a job opens up. A clean body is a best body,” he says.
The program has been in place for several years now. Card heads a collaborative of volunteers who provide shelters for the unhoused at the church.
“In 2024, we gave 1,585 showers out on these two days a week,” Card says.
It’s a program helping fulfill a real need in the community.
“It felt like it’s been a while since I had a good hot shower. It’s very much a blessing,” says Anthony Yates, who has been homeless for about a month.
Card, who is a former nuclear physicist and retired pastor, knows a thing or two herself about what it is like to be on the streets.
“Well, I was homeless. I ended up as a young person unhoused in Portland, Oregon. And really trying to survive through that. Since that experience I have always been concerned about people who don’t have housing or shelter,” she says.
“She is one of the ones that will always be there guns a-blazing to volunteer make sure that people are stepped up and stood up for,” says Kody Christensen with the Downtown Billings Alliance.
A tireless advocate for helping the unhoused—and changing perceptions about them.
“They are just like me. They have histories that may be tragic and there is so much more to every single one of them than what we assume when we just see folks sitting out on the sidewalk,” Card says.
If you know a senior who is making a difference in the community or maybe just doing something cool for their age, click here to nominate them for Q2’s Super Senior segment.
