Remembering Carol Crabtree

Carol Crabtree helping out in the Cafe Etico coffee lab circa 2017.

It was impossible to know Carol Crabtree without being inspired by her or positively challenged by her or uplifted by her. That was our experience with Carol at CoDev.

In the thick of the pandemic in 2021, Carol was one of the first volunteers to return to our coffee workshop to grind and bag coffee to keep CoDev’s social enterprise going. Those pandemic days were lonely days in the office, but staff looked forward to Carol’s visits, to the engaging conversations and warmth and humour that always accompanied Carol.

When in-person CoDev Board meetings resumed, it was Carol who made that long-awaited reunion happen, by offering up her wheelchair accessible common room. She generously opened her doors again and again for our annual holiday parties, taking it upon herself to ensure that the celebrations returned in full force.

CoDev staff loved, loved, LOVED doing tabling outreach with Carol. Not just because she fed them apple cake. She was fun and lively and attentive and skilled at connecting with people. She understood our work and made it even better.

It is not an exaggeration to declare that Carol was a dream of a volunteer: she worked hard and happy, connected with people, and was a joy to work alongside.

She was generous in giving her time and self to the many important causes she undertook to make this world more just for current and future generations. She seemed to be everywhere doing it all. There’s no excuse for the rest of us.

We miss Carol’s welcoming smile, the way her eyes really looked at you.

We miss her thought-provoking questions and her well-pondered takes on a multitude of issues. 

We miss how Carol always imbued environmental justice in all that she did. She practiced what she advocated for. 

She was exactly what our communities and causes needed, and need, and so much more. 

At CoDev, and in other spaces of connection and action, Carol leaves behind many comrades and a new generation that she has inspired.

The world has lost a champion of the noblest and urgent of causes in Carol. But her legacy is us. And we will work to honour her and do her proud.

Carol, Presente!