She's Got Chutzpah

Donna Dees-Thomases: The mom behind one of the biggest protest marches in U.S. history.

Nearly five years ago, Donna Dees-Thomases, a publicist for The Late Show with David Letterman and a mother of two, saw a report on a deadly shooting at a California nursery school. She felt outrage, then a kind of helplessness, and anger again. This particular shooting hit home: It had taken place at a Jewish community center similar to the one her children attended near her home in New Jersey. "That shook me deeply," she says, "I decided to put my publicity skills to use. I thought I could publicize the gun violence epidemic and find ways to empower other moms to get involved."

Her next act was deceptively simple—she contacted five friends. But those calls would lead to the 2000 Million Mom March, one of the biggest protest marches in U.S. history. "We have single people and dads in our organization, too," she says, "but the glue that held it together was really the moms."

On Mother's Day in 2000, more than 750,000 people marched on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., and for the movement's fourth anniversary this month, moms from all over the country will mobilize again.