When Renee Fifield moved to the Seacoast from the small ski resort town of Breckenridge, Colorado with her husband and brand new baby a year ago, the Green Alliance was only a few months old and a handful of Business Partners strong. But while having breakfast recently at Beach Pea Bakery, Renee started leafing through a folder of materials on the table, and came across a GA discount flyer. After checking our website and discovering how much she could save by becoming a member, she bought a Green Card online. She recently emailed us this amazing testimonial:

"Hello GA Folks!

I saw you the other day in Reenhabit and you asked me to make some comments on the GA. With pleasure! Here goes....

Recently moving to the Seacoast area, the GA has provided me with a sense of community already. Although I have not met many of it's members, I feel like a part of a community seeking to make change with greener options. Through the GA I have found out about businesses I never knew existed and now enjoy making purchases at these businesses. One of my favorite businesses is the Acorn Organic Salon where I enjoy fabulous treatment while feeling good about the toxic free products they use on my hair. Zev Yoga provides 5 classes for $5! I thoroughly enjoyed Jonas' classes and met some stellar members of the seacoast community while doing practicing yoga. Empower Yoga also provides a discount and a warm welcome to all folks that practice yoga with them."

When I talked to Renee on the phone, she was even more excited to talk about the Green Card. "Sometimes when you have a discount card people at stores kind of look down at you, like 'oh, she's just looking for her discount,'" says Fifield. "But with businesses in the GA, everyone is incredibly cool and actually excited to see you using the Green Card!"

Renee is just one of over 500 Green Card holders, but her story illustrated perfectly how incredible of an investment it can be, especially if we keep adding new businesses like we have.