BUTTE — A massive crowd gathered in Butte over the weekend for the nationwide No Kings movement, but local organizers say the event was about more than holding signs. Indivisible Butte collected donations to help their neighbors.
"There are people who would say that we’re just out there waiving signs and being loud, and we’re not actually doing anything, but we are looking out for and taking care of our community by doing a food drive at every event," Connie Thomson said.
Thomson is part of the leadership team for Indivisible Butte, a chapter of the national Indivisible movement.
"The philosophy behind No Kings is that, you know, when this country was established we were trying to get away from the dictatorship of the royalty of England," said Thomson.
She stands at the free food pantry on Park Street that was loaded just three days ago with items collected at the protest, where Thomson says people were voicing their concerns about the erosion of individual rights and freedoms afforded under the Constitution.
WATCH: No Kings donation to help those in need
"Unfortunately, the current administration is making steps, small steps, to get closer to being a dictatorship, to being like an ultimate ruler and that goes against the entire founding of our nation," says Thomson.
When an Indivisible volunteer loaded the Park Street food pantry, it was stuffed with food gathered at the March 28 No Kings protest. Just three days later, the Park Street pantry contains three bags of dry rice and beans, pet food, and personal care items like tampons and shampoo.
"There have been a lot of cuts to budgets and a lot of actions that are hurting people, leaving people without, say, access to food," Thomson said.
The weekend drive brought in nearly 600 food and personal care items with an estimated value of $897.75, based on a formula used by the Butte Emergency Food Bank. Combined with $961 in monetary donations, the total value reached $1,858.75.
"We split that up between the Butte Emergency Food Bank, The Montana Tech student food pantry, and the Butte pantry boxes around town," Thomson said.
Since April 2025, the Butte Indivisible group has donated $2,939.75 in items and monetary value to the Butte Emergency Food Bank. The group has also given over 1,300 items and $1,997 to the Montana Tech Student Food Pantry, and around 350 items to Butte pantries, including the B-SB Library's Cabinet of Care.
"What we’re really trying to do is build our community and take care of each other," Thomson said.
In addition to the food drive at the March 28 protest, the group hosted voter registration services and collected signatures for ballot initiatives.
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