Tiny in stature, with a big personality
Parkville Crabs victim recalled as athletic and adventurous
Deanna Jean Allik, the woman who died Friday after a car crashed through the front window of Parkville Crabs, was an athlete, adventurer and business owner, family members said.
Allik, 35, died at the scene after being hit by debris, Baltimore County police spokesperson Jennifer Peach said. Peach said the driver mayhave accidentally hit the gas pedal in the parking lot, causing the car to drive through the front of the restaurant in the 7800 block of Harford Road.
Allik, who lived several blocks away on the 8100 block of Harford Road, was the co-owner of DNS Crabs, a wholesale business in Parkville. Her older sister, Lauren, said Deanna was there doing payroll, getting together everyone’s Christmas bonuses.
“She worked really closely with Parkville Crabs,” Lauren Allik said. “She had been working really hard the past couple of years in that business as co-owner.”
Prior to starting DNS, which stands for “Delicious, Natural Seafood,” according to the company’s Facebook page, Deanna Allik
had worked as a bartender at a number of Baltimore-area establishments.
A2004graduate of C. Milton Wright High School in Bel Air, she had been involved in athletics from a young age, her sister said. In high school, she participated in cheerleading, soccer, and track and field.
“After high school, she continued to play on soccer leagues and all the recreational leagues in the city for a long time. She’d come up and be a fill-in for my rec leagues up here [in Harford County], the adult social leagues,” Lauren Allik said.
Despite her smaller stature — Deanna was 5-foot-1 and 120 pounds — Lauren described her sister as “tenacious.” She played mostly on coed club soccer teams “because she likes competition.”
“While she might be little, the smallest pepper is always the hottest, right?” Lauren said.
Deanna also was a member of the shortlived Baltimore Charm Lingerie Football League team in 2013. During halftime of a game that year, Deanna was part of a promotion where Dave Portnoy, the controversial owner of pop culture website Barstool Sports, had to tackle her.
Jimmy’s Famous Seafood in East Baltimore called attention to that moment on Twitter Sunday, when a photo of Portnoy tackling Allik appeared in the background of his show a few days after Allik was killed.
Carrie Holloway said she had known Deanna for the last five to eight years.
“She was just crazy adventurous.” Holloway said. “She would just pick up and go to another country by herself.”
Lauren Allik recalled when her younger sister went to Thailand for a month, backpacking by herself and eating a scorpion while she was there. She also remembered Deanna winning a $50 bet to eat an onion and eating a worm in her high school years, just to gross out the neighbor kids.
After years of working in the bar scene,
Deanna had spent the past year living sober, her sister said.
“She’s been a year and a monthnow, sober,” Lauren Allik said. “She had now ventured into an entire new world of people. So she went from the bartending life, which brings a bunch of drinkers, to the complete opposite.”
Deanna’s aunt, Linda Lachman, pointed to a number of Facebook posts in response to the news that Deanna had died that showed who she was. A former teacher posted that Deanna was one of her favorites: “Your smile always lit up my room.” One friend wrote “Deanna was tiny, but her personality was big,” and another posted “Will miss your beautiful smile, your amazing hugs, wise cracks and your feisty personality.”
Funds donated to aid the Allik family are being directed to Anchor Athletics, a charitable organization based in Forest Hill aimed at making youth athletics accessible to all children regardless of the challenges they face in life.
“We are touched and inspired that Deanna’s family wants to turn their personal tragedy into something positive for someone else and we will work with the Allik family to ensure that the donated funds are used for something that will honor Deanna’s vibrant life,” said Erin Voss, a founding member of Anchor Athletics.