James and Ruth, bee educators.
LA Backwards Beekeeper (and bee educator) Ruth writes:
Backwards Beekeepers has a small but committed group of individuals who go out and make presentations to schools and other venues. We provide this free service as part of our mission, which is to help the bees survive—their survival is literally ours as well.
Here are some of the groups we have hosted presentations for:
—Whole Foods Pollinator Awareness Month in-store presentations
—Boeing Corp. Pollinator Festival booth
—Unitarian Church of Rancho Palos Verdes
—Chabad Preschool Santa Monica
—Westwood Charter School
—Billy Mitchell Elementary School, Lawndale
—Canfield Elementary School
—Goethe International Charter School
—Topanga Canyon Earth Day
—Mission Viejo Earth Day
—Ballona Wetlands Earth Day
—Zoo Magnet School
—Park La Brea Earth Day
—Lunada Bay Earth Day
—Compton Sustainable Cities Event
—GROW Festival at the Los Angeles Arboretum
—Beach Cities Moving Planet event
We gear our presentations age-appropriately if working with youngsters. We bring along a collection of posters that help tell the story of the life cycle of the bee, and show pictures enlarged of the different members of the hive.
We also bring a glass-walled frame of live bees, which is endlessly fascinating, as well as honey which we distribute on ice cream sticks for the participants to taste.
A half-hour is about the minimum required, although often there are many questions that can take it well beyond an hour if allowed.
—Ruth
Want a Backwards Beekeeper to speak to your group or class? Here's how to make it happen.
