By Charlie Hosek | For MADD National
When Danette Goad lost her only daughter in a crash caused by a drunk driver, she could have chosen to retreat into grief. Instead, she transformed unimaginable pain into tireless purpose—becoming one of MADD’s most committed volunteers and the founder of a global movement in her daughter’s name.
On September 11, 2021, Danette’s daughter Ally, compassionate, vibrant, and just 22, was visiting friends in Jacksonville, Texas, when she was struck and killed in a head-on collision. A man under the influence crossed four lanes of traffic and hit her car, killing her and altering the course of her loved one’s lives forever.
That same night, back in Oklahoma, where the Goad family resides, Danette was working as a Bar Manager and already dealing with a bartender who’d been arrested for DUI. “I was sitting on my porch when I heard my husband and son scream,” she recalled. “Then I saw the officers at the door. They said, ‘Ms. Goad, we regret to inform you…’ I heard those words, and I live with them every single day.”
The loss was immediate and permanent. Danette wanted to find a way to heal and initially reached out to her local MADD office but was later in touch with the Texas team, where the crash occurred. She recalls MADD Texas Advocate Tammi Branch continuing to reach out and offer support and opportunities to share Ally’s story.
“If it weren’t for Tammi fighting to get us involved in the MADD community, we would have walked away,” Danette admitted. “But she kept calling. And eventually, I said yes.”
Since that moment, Danette has spoken at dozens of MADD Victim Impact Panels, often traveling across state lines on her own time and dime. She shares Ally’s story with rooms full of DWI/DUI offenders in Texas and Oklahoma, not from a place of judgment, but with deep compassion, education, and urgent truth.
“There are grown men in those rooms—men you’d never expect—who are crying by the time she finishes telling her story,” said Sherri Shoff, Area Executive Director for North Texas. “Danette turns her pain into purpose every time she tells her story.”
Danette’s advocacy doesn’t stop at panels. She created Ally Rocks 405, a nonprofit born just weeks after Ally’s death. It began with a simple gesture: a friend handed Danette 20 painted rocks to hide at Universal Studios and Disney World during a trip Ally had planned to attend. On the back of each rock was a message: If someone didn’t drink and drive, Ally would be alive.
What began as a moment of therapy soon became a movement. Today, 783 Unique Locations, 43 Countries and all 50 States are painting and hiding “Ally Rocks”, helping to spread the message of sober driving and keeping Ally’s memory alive.
“I just don’t want anyone to forget that my daughter lived. I want to leave her legacy etched in stone long after I’m gone,” Danette said. “That’s what motivates me every day.”
The ripple effect of her work is staggering. Danette helped create a CLEET-certified training course for law enforcement that covers DUI education from both the impaired driver’s and the victim’s perspective. She also advocates for legislative change in Oklahoma, Texas, Washington State, and several other states. She and her family sit on the Coalition to pass .05 Legislation across the United States and testify in support of harsher sentencing for intoxication manslaughter cases and longer-lasting memorial road signs.
For Danette, every panel, every training, every rock tells a story. Each is a small but defiant act of remembrance and resistance. The pain never goes away—but neither does her purpose.
She reminds everyone she meets: “The man who killed my daughter, got a 10-year sentence. I got a lifetime one. And I’m not the only one. My husband, my son, my daughter-in-law, her brand-new niece who’ll never meet her—we all did.”
And yet, she presses on.
“I always tell people, show me a day on the calendar when someone’s not going to be killed by a drunk driver. That’s the day I’ll take off.”
Until then, Danette Goad continues to fight. For justice. For reform. For Ally.
