JUst moms stl founders Just wanted answers
If someone had told us years ago that we would spend over a decade sitting across the table from members of Congress, EPA Administrators, scientists, attorneys, and federal agencies, we would have laughed. We weren’t looking for this life. We were just two moms who wanted answers.
We founded Just Moms STL because we realized no one else was going to fight for our families the way we would.
Like so many others, we were raising our children in North St. Louis County while unknowingly living among the legacy of radioactive waste left behind from the Manhattan Project. We began asking questions because we saw too many people getting sick. Too many neighbors were dying from cancer. Too many families were wondering why. Instead of receiving answers, we often found closed doors, confusing reports, and agencies pointing fingers at one another.
The more we learned, the more impossible it became to walk away.
Neither one of us had backgrounds in environmental science, public policy, or law. We had no roadmap. We learned because we had to. We spent late nights reading thousands of pages of government documents, technical reports, health studies, and historical records. We taught ourselves enough to ask better questions, and then enough to challenge the answers we were being given.
People often see the victories, but they rarely see what it took to get there.
They don’t see the nights we cried because another family called to tell us someone they loved had been diagnosed with cancer. They don’t see the guilt of missing family dinners, birthdays, vacations, or school events because another meeting, another hearing, or another emergency couldn’t wait. They don’t see the exhaustion that comes from carrying not only your own fears, but the fears of an entire community.
Advocacy isn’t glamorous. It is heartbreaking.
There have been moments when we felt completely defeated. There were times when powerful people dismissed us simply because we were “just moms.” There were attempts to discredit us, divide us, and make us question ourselves. We’ve been criticized, attacked personally, and told to stop asking questions.
But every time someone tried to knock us down, another family reminded us why we couldn’t quit.
The people we have met along this journey have become part of our family. We’ve stood beside parents burying children, children burying parents, husbands losing wives, and wives losing husbands. We’ve celebrated survivors and mourned together when the outcome wasn’t what we prayed for. Those moments stay with you forever.
The hardest part has been knowing that so much suffering could have been prevented if people had simply done the right thing decades ago.
Over the years, Just Moms STL has grown into something neither of us could have imagined. We’ve had the privilege of working alongside incredible scientists, physicians, engineers, community leaders, and advocates from across the country. We’ve helped communities understand what they were facing and reminded them they weren’t alone.
One of the greatest honors of our lives has been helping fight for the expansion of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA). Watching families finally receive acknowledgment after decades of being ignored has been emotional beyond words. It wasn’t about money. It was about recognition. It was about finally hearing the federal government say, “We see you. We recognize what happened.”
There is still so much work ahead. Cleanup isn’t finished. Families still need answers. Health concerns continue. New generations deserve to inherit communities that are safe, not contaminated.
People sometimes ask us if it was worth it.
The answer is yes.
Not because the work has been easy—it hasn’t.
Not because we’ve won every battle—we certainly haven’t.
It’s worth it because every family who now knows they aren’t alone matters. Every child who may grow up in a cleaner environment matters. Every person who finally found someone willing to listen matters.
We never wanted recognition. We never wanted to become advocates. We simply loved our families enough that giving up was never an option.
Looking back over the years, we realize Just Moms STL has never really been about us. It has always been about ordinary people finding extraordinary courage. It has been about neighbors standing together when no one else would. It has been about refusing to accept that our community was expendable.
If there is one lesson this journey has taught us, it is that ordinary people truly can change history. You don’t need to be an expert to make a difference. You just need to care enough to keep going, especially when it’s difficult.
We are incredibly proud of what Just Moms STL has become, but we are even more proud of the thousands of people who have walked this journey beside us. Every letter written, every meeting attended, every story shared, every prayer offered, every hug given after another heartbreaking diagnosis—all of it has mattered.
This work has changed both of us forever. It has shown us both the worst and the very best of humanity. It has taught us resilience, compassion, patience, and courage we never knew we possessed.
Most importantly, it has taught us that hope is contagious.
As long as there are families who need someone to stand beside them, Just Moms STL will continue to do exactly what we have done from the very beginning: show up, speak up, and never stop fighting for the people we love.
“Most importantly, it has taught us that hope is contagious.”
