Planet Bee's hive has been buzzing like crazy this summer! We've been busy with summer camps, workshops, and exciting events. Here's what we've accomplished in summer 2017: 

Summer Camps

Farm Camp at Alemany Farm

Planet Bee partnered with the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department to teach weekly lessons to Farm Campers at the beautiful Alemany Farm, an organic community farm in San Francisco. Farm Camp ran for 8 weeks, with  2-week-long sessions, beginning on June 19th and ending on August 4th. Every first Thursday between those dates, Planet Bee visited Alemany Farm to teach campers our Humble Honey Bee (HHB) lesson and play a rousing game of bees vs. wasps. Every second Thursday, Planet Bee led a hive dive for campers at the Golden Gate Park CommUnity Garden, where we maintain two hives. Farm Camp was a great success, and we look forward to doing it again next summer!

Want to know more? Here's a blog post about Farm Camp, and here's the full facebook album of pictures. 

Summer Camp at Acta Non Verba Youth Urban Farm

Planet Bee educators Sarah and Ayla worked with adorable campers once again at our long-time partner Acta Non Verba Youth Urban Farm Camp (ANV) in Oakland this summer. Each time, we taught our HHB lesson to four groups of students of different ages. To see the full facebook album of pictures of our time at ANV, click here. 

ACE Summer Camp at Peralta Hacienda Historical Park

We also visited ACE Summer Camp,  located at Peralta Hacienda Historical Park in Oakland. Peralta Hacienda itself is a Spanish house built in 1870 which serves today as a historical and cultural center. On our first day, Sarah and Ayla taught the first half of our HHB lesson (pollination) to several groups of children of varying ages. On the second day, Sarah was joined by Planet Bee Board Member Jaynee Howe and her son Oliver as she taught the second half of our HHB lesson (bee biology) to campers. To see the full facebook album of pictures of ACE Summer Camp, click here. 

Summer Scout Wilderness Camp at the Sonoma Academy of Dance & Arts

This was our first year working with the Sonoma Academy of Dance & Arts.  Sarah and Ayla had the honor of teaching our HHB lesson to their summer campers, ranging in age from 4 to 12.  Students had a blast watching honey bees close up in our observation hive, playing pollination games, eating honey fresh off the comb and making seed balls!

Workshops

Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History

Early in the summer,  Executive Director Debra Tomaszewski, her husband Bill, our Master Beekeeper, our intern Nancy, and Planet Bee educator Ayla, taught a fun, interactive bee basics lesson at the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History, where we've had an Adopt-A-Hive program for the last 2 years. 

Mill Valley Library

Sarah and Ayla also taught our Humble Honey Bee workshop at Mill Valley Library in Mill Valley. Youngsters of the neighborhood were busy as bees playing games and watching our busy bees close up in the observation hive!

The Ranch

For the 2nd year in a row, Planet Bee has been lucky enough to work with children at the fabulous summer camp through the Belvedere / Tiburon recreation department, now called The Ranch.  Children had fun buzzing through all of our bee friendly activities!

Workshop with SAP and Bon Apetit

This workshop was one to remember! The whole hive drove down to SAP headquarters in Mountain View, where we ran a three-hour workshop for employees and their children. We began by teaching our bee basics lesson, distributed cute antennae headbands to kids, and played a brand-new a honey bee garden scavenger hunt. Then we joined forces with the Bon Apetit kitchen staff at SAP to help kids build their own bee-friendly parfaits! None of the ingredients of these delicious concoctions would have existed without bees and other pollinators. To see the full facebook album of pictures from this fun event, click here. 

Beekeeping for City Slicker Farms on behalf of Clif Bar

Planet Bee Foundation

We were very proud when we found out that our partner Clif Bar donated some of the beehives they built during our workshop with them to City Slicker Farm in Oakland.  City Slicker Farm's admirable mission is to "empower West Oakland community members to meet the immediate and basic need for healthy fresh food for themselves and their families by creating high-yield urban farms and backyard gardens." Sarah and Ayla checked in on the health of the hive while on their way home from working at Acta Non Verba-- talk about buzzy day! Our Master Beekeeper Bill, returned to give a hands-on workshop to the staff the following weekend. We're thrilled with this bee-utiful new partnership. 

Events

Network Connections Inc Charity Golf Outing

On Wednesday, June 28th, Network Connections Inc (NCI), one of our new partners, hosted a charity golf outing to support Planet Bee! The outing was held at Downington Country Club in Downington, PA. Executive Director Debra Tomaszewski and her husband Bill flew in and had a lovely time golfing and sipping wine with the friendly people of NCI. We're so grateful for NCI's  generous donation of $9,000, which will allow us to bring our educational programs to hundreds of new students in high needs schools this fall!

Planet Bee Foundation

San Diego Comic Con

Planet Bee had a blast speaking on a panel called "Saving the Bees Through Art" at this year's San Diego Comic Con, on July 20 to 23. We were invited by our new partner, painter and comic book illustrator Camilla d'Errico. In the picture to the right, you can see Camilla on the left, Planet Bee Executive Director Debra Tomaszewski in the middle, and Program Director Sarah Thorson on the right. Together, these three ladies educated the public about the struggling honey bee and the role art can play in environmentalism. 

Gravenstein Apple Fair

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On Saturday, August 12th, Planet Bee had a blast tabling and educating the public at the 44th annual Gravenstein Apple Fair at Ragle Ranch Park in Sebastopol, alongside our longtime partner Whole Foods Market. 

New Corporate Partners

  • Agathist

  • Ashe Creek Bees

  • HoneyBum

  • Materials Marketing

  • Metazoa Beer

  • Phoebe8

  • Rice Coffee House

  • Smitty Bee Honey

  • Two Queen Bees Vintage

  • Virtual Strides

  • WineHive

Staff

New Intern, Nancy

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Planet Bee Foundation

This summer, Planet Bee was overjoyed to welcome a brilliant and hilarious new intern, Nancy Luo.  She is a Bay Area native pursuing a bachelor’s in bioengineering. We were all extremely impressed with the quality of Nancy's work, and are so excited that she is staying on as our intern for another semester! Plus, she makes a mean Kombucha.

Saying Hello to Zach

Planet Bee is extremely excited about our new Environmental Educator Zach Parlee, who will be starting work on Monday, August 28th. Finally, we have a drone!  Zach graduated from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where he received a degree in Natural Resources and Environmental Management. He is a Teach-For-America grad who taught middle school science for two years on the Big Island of Hawaii, and spent a summer as an environmental educator for NatureBridge at Golden Gate National Recreation Area. His passion for environmental education is rooted in a belief that meaningful relationships with nature empower students to become agents of change. We can't wait to welcome him to our hive!

Saying Goodbye to Ayla

Sadly, your humble author will be leaving her position as Environmental Educator and Staff Writer on August 25th. I (Ayla) am not sure what I'll miss more: playing Bees vs Wasps with students, eating fresh honeycomb, or petting the saggy office basset hound, Stella. However, I am very excited for the future, as I will be starting my Master of Letters in Environment, Culture, and Communication at the University of Glasgow in Scotland this fall! I'll be one step closer to my dream of being a writer who communicates important environmental issues to the public through storytelling and other creative methods. I plan to return to the US only once I have perfected my Scottish accent and learned how to play the bagpipes. So to all of you who have read my newsletters and blogs over the past year, I say thank you so much, and goodbye (for now).

PS. I will be staying on as a guest writer, so look out for my "Sacred Bee" series about the history of beekeeping throughout human civilization in the coming months. So no need to worry,  you'll be hearing from again soon!

 

Written by Ayla Fudala

Staff Writer and Environmental Educator

 

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