Breaking News
Local News

Hollidaysburg student proves age doesn’t define success

Smith launched The Jesus Crate store to boost teen mental health

By Colette Costlow 7 min read

Hollidaysburg Area senior Addison Smith first got a taste for business while running a hot chocolate stand beside her family's annual spring yard sale.

To simulate a real business scenario, her father, Mike, helped his two children form a business plan by calculating profit and loss margins. They factored in supplies, such as Keurig cups of hot chocolate, into their budget.

Exposing Smith to business scenarios at a young age contributed to her store, The Jesus Crate, that sells subscription boxes filled with journals, stickers and self-written devotionals.

"I get opinions from different friends; I'm like, 'What are things that help you be reminded of God?'" she said.

She received many awards since her business launched in July 2025, including second place at the Young Entrepreneurs Academy Investor's Panel -- earning $3,500 toward her business -- and second place at the 2026 Future Business Leaders of America competition National Leadership Conference, making Hollidaysburg history as the first female FBLA National placewinner.

Age doesn't define success, according to Smith.

"I have a lot more time to fail and to try again because failure is where you grow," she said. "I have more time to fall and realize what I did wrong, and then fix that and not do it again."

Being a Hollidaysburg native, Smith and her family regularly attended Hicks Memorial Methodist Church in Duncansville throughout her childhood, instilling a strong sense of faith in her.

"All of the people who taught me there have been so supportive of me and have been incredible," she said. "And I think they inspired me to do this (The Jesus Crate)."

Meanwhile, she and her younger brother, Avery, began dipping into their first business with their self-made hot chocolate stand while her parents ran a yard sale for three years.

"I had them figure out what they were going to sell this for, which was reasonable and somebody would buy it at a yard sale," Mike said.

Addison attended Foot of Ten Elementary School before moving up to Hollidaysburg Area Junior then Senior High School. In 10th grade, she joined the school's FBLA club.

"I joined it so I could skip school," she said, tongue-in-cheek.

However, she participated with a group in the Intro to Social Media Strategies category. They were required to create a social media campaign to fundraise for a nonprofit. They chose the Blair Regional YMCA and raised just over $1,500 for the Y's youth scholarship fund by selling yellow shoelaces, which customers wore at the annual Perry Wellington Turkey Trot Race in November 2024.

They gave a seven-minute presentation at the FBLA State Leadership Conference in 2025 and secured first place, sending them to the national competition in Anaheim, California.

While competing at Nationals, Smith attended events during her free time, such as the business plan finalists.

"I watched probably two hours of business plan finalists at Nationals," she said. "And I was like, 'This seems like a really cool project,'" she said.

After watching the presentations, she returned to her hotel room and began thinking about her own business plan for future FBLA competitions.

"I was trying to figure out what I could do for it, and I was like, 'I really love a Jesus crate, like helping teens like me,'" she said.

Launching new plans

After returning home from Anaheim, Smith began working on launching The Jesus Crate.

By teens for teens, the subscription box is meant to strengthen spiritual connections with young Christians who typically struggle to make time for devotion. Her crates are built around genuine teenage struggles, such as anxiety, friendship and stress, that compare to examples found in the Bible, according to her website.

She writes her own devotionals, which are included in the crates and overseen by her youth group director, along with challenge cards that encourage users to act out their faith.

The Classic Crate, filled with a journal, stickers and bracelets, is available on her website for $18.50. The Create Your Crate and the Creators Create are available for $22.

With help from her father, she launched her business on July 25, 2025, and began selling her products in September. So far, she's sold 35 crates.

Under a post from July 2025, an Instagram user commented, "Just found out about this, and I am so excited! ... I can't wait to get one for myself!"

While playing sports and volunteering during her junior year of high school, Smith still made time to run her business and send out orders.

"My dad always told me, 'You have to understand the way business works because everything is a business,'" she said. "But then FBLA gave me the skills, the knowledge and the confidence to try and start my own business and take that step."

She presented The Jesus Crate in the business plan category at the FBLA State Leadership Conference in 2026 and secured the last spot to compete at the Nationals competition from June 29 to July 2 in San Antonio, Texas.

For the business plan category, many competitors make a mock business and present hypothetical scenarios, she said. But she thinks presenting her real business plan gave her a leg up in the contest.

"These are risks and challenges that I have to overcome, and they could literally see that," she said. "And when the judges ask questions, I was like, 'Yeah, that happened to me. This is how we solved that.'"

She took home second place in business plan, the first female in Hollidaysburg history to place that high in a national FBLA competition.

Stating that she competed to have fun, learn lessons and gain experience, she said she worked hard for the award.

"It was cool to see that it paid off and people saw it," she said.

Definitely driven

Smith plans to continue The Jesus Crate after high school, as she wants to keep the business sustainable over the years.

However, she wants to study healthcare in the future with hopes of becoming a physician assistant with a trauma or emergency room specialization.

"I would rather help people," she said.

While competing in her school's FBLA program, Smith swims for Hollidaysburg Area Senior High's main team, USA team, and the Blair Regional YMCA team. She runs cross country and participates in National Honor Society and Key Club. She is also a lifeguard and swim instructor at the YMCA.

Since Smith was a young girl, Mike said she woke him up at 4:30 a.m. every morning to make her school's 5 a.m. swim practice.

"I wasn't moving fast enough, so the next thing I know, my coffee is made, and my breakfast sandwich is made. And the truck is started," he said.

That story shows that when Smith wants something, she grabs it, he said.

"Definitely driven," her mother, Jen, said. "She's well organized, definitely has a plan every morning."

A lot of that self-discipline stems from her athletic background, her mother said, referencing early morning swim practices and late-night cross country practices.

"I would say I owe a lot of who I am as a person to athletics," Smith said. "The more time and dedication you put into something is how much better you do."

Mirror Staff Writer Colette Costlow is at 814-946-7414.

The Smith file

Name: Addison Smith

Age: 17

Hometown: Hollidaysburg

Education: Foot of Ten Elementary School, Hollidaysburg Area Junior High School, Hollidaysburg Area Senior High School

Family: Parents, Mike and Jen; brother, Avery

Pets: Beagle, Tucker; and gecko Bobby

Clubs: Hollidaysburg Area swim team (USA and main), cross country team, Key Club and National Honor Society, YMCA swim team, lifeguard and swim instructor

Awards: Fourth place in Business Plan at the FBLA State Leadership Conference, second place at the Young Entrepreneurs Academy (YEA!) Investor's Panel and second place at the FBLA National Leadership Conference, all in 2026

Website: https://thejesuscrate.com/pages/mission Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_jesus_crate/reels/

Starting at /week.