Mo's Restaurants Receives Top Honors at Award Ceremony in D.C. for Supporting Guard Soldiers and Families

The company looks for more and more opportunities to support the men and women of the Oregon National Guard

Taken at the formal Mobilization Ceremony for the 41st BCT in February, Pictured left to right: John Becker,President/CEO Newport Pacific Seafood, Jan Becker, Jolee Becker, Peggy Preisz, General Manager Mo's, Governor Kulongoski, Gabe McIntee, grand daughter of original Mo, and Congressman Peter DeFazio

(WASHINGTON D.C.) - Mo's Restaurant and Newport Pacific Seafood Corporation were awarded the 2006 National Restaurant Neighbor Award in Washington D.C. in Washington D.C. on Sept. 11, 2006.

They were honored before 900 of their peers at the Opening ceremony of the National Restaurant Association Public Affairs Conference. The national award was presented by the NRA President, Steven Anderson. This marks the first time a nominee from Oregon has won this award.

This award also has a monetary prize of $5,000 which John Becker, President of Newport Pacific Seafood Corporation, and Peggy Preisz of Mo's Restaurants have announced will be donated to the Oregon National Guard to help with emergencies for Oregon National Guard soldiers and families who have soldiers deployed. Additionally, they are donating the prize from the Oregon award as well.

They initially received the 2006 Governor's Award for Community Excellence for the monumental support shown to the Oregon National Guard. This win automatically entered them into the national competition.

Earlier this year, the General Manager of Mo's Restaurants, Peggy Preisz contacted the Oregon National Guard stating to say that they had been trying for some time to find ways for Mo's to show their support and appreciation to the many Guard Soldiers and their families for the work they do.

This came at a time when Oregon was preparing to deploy more than 900 Soldiers from the 41st Brigade Combat Team who are currently serving in Afghanistan as part of Coalition Joint Task Force Phoenix V.

Peggy offered to feed the noon meal to not only all the soldiers but also to their families, friends and supporters at their mobilization ceremony. This open them up to prepare and serve thousands of people in a short amount of time.

Employees from Mo's six Restaurant locations and Newport Pacific Seafood Corp. from top level management down to servers came out in force, all on a volunteer basis to setup, prepare and serve.

Since that day, they continue to look for more and more opportunities to support the men and women of the Oregon National Guard. Their current challenge, they want to send over clam chowder to our Soldiers serving in Afghanistan this winter.