The New Buzz of the Bee Club
There is a lot of buzz around one of Grace’s more unique clubs, The Bee Club. The club is rather new compared to some of the more traditional clubs at school but has grown in popularity each year. Current leader, senior Parker Ludwig-Larsen has been in the club since it first started, and with her leadership, the club is now producing their own honey!
The club started when Grace alum Tristan Pinto ’18 created a relationship with a local honey maker who sells his bees’ creations at the Union Square Greenmarket. With the help of this specialist, two beehives were installed on the roof of the 86 4th Ave. campus in 2017. These hives were placed next to the existing greenhouse on the roof, which is perfect to keep bees warm for the cold winter. The club, as well as some classes in the lower and middle school, check on the bees regularly, learning about their lifestyles everytime they go to see them.
The Bee Club not only learns about the important roles bees play in our ecosystem but has been able to raise these bees to maturity and finally create some delicious-tasting honey. This year, the club decided to start selling their honey for a nice profit to add to their club fund, as taking care of bees can be pricey. This club has been attracting lots of new members from the freshman class and is very unique to a New York City school.
Parker is very excited about the accomplishments of the club so far and said this about their accomplishments, future goals, and upcoming events:
“This year, the Bee Club has been really working on our relationship with the community, especially the kids at 86. We have invited Mr. Semlear’s third-grade class to learn more about the bees on the roof, and they helped us out with bottling and labeling our honey. We hope that this will get everyone excited about the bees and ensure that the club and the bees will always have members to take care of them in the future.”
As mentioned above, being able to have bees on a roof is very special, so the club’s ability to accomplish that was a very big deal. “In previous years, the club was mainly focused on getting the bees on the roof and figuring out the details of keeping bees.” So far the club has been very successful and had a big accomplishment recently. “This year, we got our first harvest – 2 lbs of honey!! We had our first honey sale at the middle and high schools and we sold out in only a few minutes. The honey was a big hit and people are already excited about the next sale!”
The club is very unique and has a lot of offer to those who are truly passionate about the exploration of bees and making honey. During the off-season, the club is going to be working on ways to teach and spread more awareness throughout the Grace community about bees and their importance in the environment.”