Billings Could Put Missing Persons on Coffee Sleeves Like Greybull Does

When I was a kid, missing children’s faces showed up on milk cartons. You’d be eating breakfast, and there they were, looking right at you. I never forgot those faces, and I think that was the point.

Milk cartons are long gone from that job, but a Wyoming nonprofit has found a new place for it: the coffee cup. I learned about the idea from a piece written by Hannah Pedeferri of KTVQ, and I think it’s worth talking about here in Billings.

How WyoFind Puts Missing Persons on Greybull Coffee Sleeves

All of the credit for this idea belongs to WyoFind, the Wyoming-based nonprofit behind the campaign, and to Pedeferri for bringing it to light in her KTVQ report. Everything below about how it works in Wyoming comes from her reporting.

In Greybull, a coffee shop called Wyld Sage Coffee House hands customers cup sleeves printed with photos of missing people. Another local business, Sun Joy, has joined the effort. The shop serves between 75 and 100 customers a day, so dozens of people leave each morning carrying the face of someone who is still missing. Owner Jalissa Olsen told Pedeferri the sleeves are a chance to be “a voice for people who are voiceless.”

WyoFind president Stacy Koester has a missing family member of her own. She also remembers the milk cartons, and she describes the sleeves as the modern version of that campaign. Her focus is Wyoming’s cold cases, and she told KTVQ that even a small detail someone once dismissed as unimportant can be the piece that solves one.

READ MORE: What Do Montana’s Mysterious 3 7 77 Numbers Really Mean?

Missing Persons in Yellowstone County, Montana

Here at home in Billings, the need to raise awareness of missing persons is easy to see. At the time of this publishing, the Montana Department of Justice missing persons database lists 33 missing people in Yellowstone County alone, and that is 33 too many.

Behind every one of those listings is a family waiting for a phone call. Some of those families have been waiting a long time.

Why Billings Coffee Sleeves Could Spread Missing Persons Awareness

Billings runs on coffee. People grab a cup on the way to work, between appointments and on the drive to school drop-off. A sleeve puts a name and a face in someone’s hand for the length of that drink, with no app to open and no website to remember.

Sadly, so many people scroll past a missing person post in seconds. A sleeve is harder to ignore, and it tends to start conversations at the counter and in the car. Those conversations spread awareness, and awareness is how someone remembers what they saw.

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Billings Could Follow Wyoming’s Missing Persons Coffee Sleeve Campaign

To my knowledge, nothing like this exists in Billings yet, and I think it could. I’m not an investigator or an expert on locating missing people, but I do think any local effort would need to work with law enforcement and the families involved. Families should decide whether to use their loved one’s photo, and every sleeve’s details would need to be current and accurate. Still, I think this is a great idea.

READ MORE: Evelyn Cameron’s Photos Preserve a Lost Side of Eastern Montana

WyoFind’s campaign shows it can be done with a nonprofit and a handful of coffee shops. Billings has plenty of both coffee shops and neighbors who care.

If you own a coffee shop in Billings, or you know someone who does, I think it’s worth starting the conversation. One cup of coffee could be the reason someone finally recognizes a face.