If you want to call or email Mo Strack, be patient. She may be phoning legislators or sending them messages pressing for gun safety.
“As soon as I get an alert, boom. I’m on the phone to Jeff City or Washington, whatever’s happening in the moment,” Mo said, referring to the weekly Advocacy Alerts from GGS member Dave Webster. “Thank goodness for his vigilance because legislators (who oppose gun reform) bank on our not knowing what’s going on.”
In January alone, Mo made 37 phone calls to state and federal lawmakers and sent 28 emails. In March, Mo and Al, her husband of 48 years, were recognized as GGS Volunteers of the Quarter ahead of National Volunteer Week, April 21-17.
Advocating comes naturally to Mo. Her politically active mother often took her and her three older sisters to hand out flyers at political events. Eventually, her mother became the first woman treasurer of the Arkansas Democratic Party during the Bill Clinton era.
Mo’s shock after Sandy Hook and shootings that followed reached a decisive point last March. She and Al were watching coverage of the mass shooting in Nashville at the New Covenant Christian School that killed six people, including three children.
“We just can’t keep sitting here doing nothing,” she remembered saying. Recently retired, they joined GGS that day. Together they’ve staffed several Lock It For Love events and also sponsored the annual Community Forum.
In 2020, the couple moved to the Plaza area after long careers in Bartlesville, OK. Mo was a radiology technologist, and Al worked in manufacturing for Phillips Petroleum. They have a daughter here plus a son and grandson in Portland, OR.