A weekend buzzing with bee-related festivities

First, on Friday Feb. 8, we hosted a “HappBee Hour” for EWU students with the Bee Girl (beegirl.org), which entailed a lunch and meet-n-greet with Sarah Red-Laird (AKA the Bee Girl). We also held a pollinator fair about ways to gets involved with pollinator protection on campus and in the region. This event was co-sponsored by EWU Biology, Sustainability, and Associated Students of EWU (ASEWU).

Saturday Feb. 9 was the Pacific Northwest Beekeeping Conference, presented by the Washington State Beekeepers Association (wasba.org) and EWU. Two concurrent tracks of talks from scientists and hobbyists, Keynote Presentation by Sarah Red-Laird, and vendor fair made up the day. A reception followed the conference with a honey-themed menu at The Mason Jar in Cheney.

Lastly, on Sunday Feb. 10, The Bee Girl, EWU Biology, and Mobius Science Center in downtown Spokane teamed up for a Kids and Bees program, and volunteer training workshop. The “Train the trainer” workshop with the Bee Girl was aimed to educate volunteers to do their own bee outreach program for kids. The Kids and Bees program with the Bee Girl followed, which included two rounds of interactive talks with the Bee Girl, followed by hand-on activities such as beeswax candle-making, honey tasting, observational hive, and more.

Get the Bee Girl's Kids and Bees Handbook here: