Four of us began GIRLS CAN! CRATE in 2015—-Alison, Kristen (that’s me), Megan, and Monika. In 2016, Monika left to focus on her family. And it’s now time for another goodbye.
Alison, one of our founding members, a co-owner, and our Operations Ace has stepped away from GIRLS CAN! CRATE to cultivate her other passion—-growing and tending, particularly growing and tending vegetables and fruit.
When Alison and her family moved back to Michigan in 2018, her love of digging her fingers into the dirt and watching things grew took root. She spent time working for a community farm when she arrived back in MI and from that experience, her love of farming and her fascination with planting took off…much like her home garden that looked amazing and left us Arizona ladies envious. This desire to dig into this passion grew and eventually, she knew that the time had come to pursue this full-time. Alison knew that she couldn’t do that while in her role at GIRLS CAN!, so she decided that the best thing to do was step away from GIRLS CAN! CRATE. And the day she told us her plans in our weekly meeting, Megan and I were sad, but we weren’t surprised. To see Alison talk about what she was growing, what she was learning, and how she herself had grown in working on the farm and in the dirt was like watching the plants she was growing turn towards the sun. We knew that’s where she was meant to be.
Since its inception, Alison has not only been our operations person, but also our big idea, dreamer, and “I think we could do it this way” person. She has been the one to pursue relationships with like-minded companies and organizations for some really cool collaborations, she helped establish our partnerships with charter and homeschool organizations, and she’s helped take us from where we started to where we are. Beyond all of that and so much more, Alison brought fierce dance moves, her love of brownies and lemon bars, and made us laugh a lot. Megan and I are reminded of times laughing while we all packed boxes in Megan’s living room late into the night, problem-solving when something happened with a supplier that we weren’t expecting, developing an adventure through space game with me at a table at Whole Foods, or the time we went to Nashville for a conference and Alison couldn’t wait for our food to be ready and devoured her nachos in the car while waiting for us, and so much more.
There’s so much more that could be said, but for now, Megan and I just want to wish Alison the best on her new adventure and this next chapter. We hope it’s full of good things that grow well, lots of laughter and dreaming, and, of course, brownies. Thank you, Alison, for helping us grow GIRLS CAN! CRATE.