Mission Beelieve with Monica Schmitt (S6, E25)

S6, E25 - Mission Beelieve with Monica Schmitt

Tom Nolan: Hi, this is Tom Nolan from NOD Apiary Products in Canada. Welcome to the  Beekeeping Today Podcast.

Jeff Ott: Welcome to  Beekeeping Today  Podcast, your source for beekeeping news, information, and entertainment presented by Betterbee. I'm Jeff Ott.

Becky Masterman: I'm Becky Masterman.

Kim Flottum: I'm Kim Flottum.

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Jeff: Thank you, Sherry. A quick shout-out to all of our sponsors whose support allows us to bring you this podcast each week without resorting to a fee-based subscription. We don't want that, and we know you don't either. Be sure to check out all of our content on our website. There you can read up on all our guests, read our blog on the various aspects and observations about beekeeping, search for, download, and listen to over 200 past episodes, read episode transcripts, leave comments and feedback on each show, and check on podcast specials from our sponsors. You can find it all at www.beekeepingtodaypodcast.com.

Thanks, Tom, for that great opening. Tom, I'll be sending you a bill in an email here real soon for that nice spot you did there for NOD Apiary Products.

[laughter]

Just kidding, Tom. Thanks for providing that opening. We like our listeners to send in openings, don't we?

Becky: We do. I like listeners from all the states, but I'm just wondering when's the last time we had an opening from Minnesota that maybe wasn't me? [crickets chirping] You can't remember.

Jeff: No. The cricket's there.

Becky: Okay. I'm hoping somebody from Minnesota is going to record an opening and send it in to you ASAP.

Jeff: [chuckles] Do anybody who would be willing to do that?

Becky: Maybe I should send an email or two. I bet I do know at least one beekeeper in Minnesota. You might be getting it from me, but hey.

[laughter]

Jeff: Hi, this is--

Becky: [laughs]

Jeff: That would be interesting. There's, what, 52 weeks in a year? We put out 52 episodes a year. It'd be great to have 50 beekeepers from 50 different states send an opening. Wouldn't that be a cool goal for 2024?

Becky: I think that is a really good goal. We're going to have to start keeping track.

Jeff: Let's do that.

Becky: That's a good idea.

Jeff: Folks, please send in an opening, say what state you're from, and we'll keep a map of where our listeners are from. I can't wait. This will be fun.

Becky: I think this is a great way to start the new year, which is coming up in just a few short weeks.

Jeff: Oh my gosh. Don't remind me. We're at the tail end of 2023. I'm looking back at my bees and what I've done, my successes and failures, and looking forward to 2024. I do this every year. It's just like I get both flustered and excited at the same time.

Becky: Right. I have a spreadsheet. Do you have a spreadsheet? Because you open up the spreadsheet of where you are and where you want to go as far as number of colonies and honey production. It's a fun time of year to make some of those plans.

Jeff: A spreadsheet?

Becky: It's the scientist in me. It's really good for tracking.

Jeff: [laughs] I just use a brick on the hive top. If it's standing on end--

Becky: Oh, that's queenless. I know what that means.

[laughter]

Oh, wait, what does yours mean? Is it different in different states?

Jeff: It just means I didn't lay it down. If there's no brick, that means that I was lazy and I didn't put the brick back on. What are your goals for 2024? Anything that you've solidified so far? It's beginning of December.

Becky: I haven't usually run bees for honey production, which sounds really weird. I think I've mentioned before, honey is not my favorite thing. I love when the bees are able to make it. What I've done is encourage them to draw out a lot of comb. I do a lot of frame rotation, also doing a lot of splits. I haven't focused on trying to really push honey production. I've recently, with a friend and my co-author for  Minding Your Bees and Cuesat Bee Culture-- Oh my gosh, are you going to bill me for that?

[laughter]

Jeff: Touché.

Becky: With Bridget Mendel. We've been selling honey at the state fair through the Minnesota Honey Producers at their booth. It's fun. I think my goal is to ramp up honey production and actually try to-- I've always gotten a surplus-- but try to really increase that surplus and sell more honey. How about you?

Jeff: I've always been focused on honey production. I never know what to do with the wax. I wish I did. I wish I had the facilities to process the amount of wax that I end up with. It was really nice, in Colorado, I would take my supers to Al Summers, who was there just south of Longmont, north of Boulder. He would extract my honey. He'd keep the wax cappings and all that mess. I would come back, pick up my honey, then I'd take it right down the road to the Madhava Honey to process my honey, and I was done. I was fat, dumb, and happy.

Now we've built a little honey house, honey room in a barn. Made it up really nice. Put in some nice equipment in there. A local beekeeping buddy of mine, Paul, and I have done that. It's really nice. Now I'm still trying to figure out, "What am I going to do with all those wax cappings?" That is my goal for 2024, is to maintain my honey production, and then figure out the best way to handle all of those cappings.

Becky: I love it. That is such a productive goal. The wax is such a lovely product of the bees. You really do have a lot of options. You have to start with a spreadsheet and make a list of everything you can do with that wax. You can-

Jeff: Spreadsheet.

Becky: -put it on foundation. You can make fire starters. You can make candles. You can make products. You can sell the wax to people who are making lotions.

Jeff: That's what I need to investigate. I just have all these wax cappings. I might put them in a solar melter and get some sort of sticky, messy brick. I've not gone beyond that point. Yes, 2024, it's all about wax.

Becky: I love it. [laughs] That's a good slogan.

[laughter]

Jeff: Coming up, we have Monica Schmitt of Mission Beelieve. You know Monica? You've talked to her?

Becky: I do. Actually, I remember meeting Monica a number of years ago at the American Honey Producers Association, where the Bee Squad was putting on a talk about beekeeping for veterans. I remember I think she raised her hand in the audience. Her question was, "What about first responders? What about veterans and first responders?" That was just when she was forming her ideas to get Mission Beelieve off the ground. It's going to be really exciting to hear what she's done since that. That was several years ago. I was able to do an introductory beekeeping class, just an hour-long session for her for one of her programs. She's impressive, and she's built quite the program.

Jeff: I'm looking forward to talking to Monica. As you may or may not know, I don't know if we've ever talked about this, but I was a volunteer fireman paramedic, EMT-P, in Ohio. I've spent many years with paramedics and other firefighting and first responders. It's a stressful job, stressful situations, and it's not always happy. I am looking forward to talking to Monica and the work that she's doing.

Becky: Agreed.

Jeff: Let's get to that right after our quick word from our friends at Strong Microbials.

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Jeff: While you're at the Strong Microbials site, make sure you click on and subscribe to The Hive, their regular newsletter full of interesting beekeeping facts and product updates.

Hey, everybody, welcome back. Sitting across a virtual  Beekeeping Today Podcast table is Monica Schmitt, director of Mission Beelieve. Monica, welcome to  Beekeeping Today Podcast. It's a pleasure having you here.

Monica Schmitt: Thank you for having me, Jeff and Becky. Really excited you reached out to have us join.

Becky: It's our pleasure, Monica. Happy to see your face again.

Jeff: [laughs] Monica, the reason we wanted to have you here is because the work you're doing for first responders and veterans is so important. I was telling Becky a little bit before the show that I was a paramedic for six years in Ohio. I understand the value of the work that you're doing for the first responders.

The trauma and the things that first responders have to deal with, that most people are lucky not to have to deal with. They have to somehow compartmentalize that in their life, to carry it with them, deal with it somehow. The work that you're doing, Mission Beelieve, I said, "Hey, I really want to talk to Monica." That's why I wanted to have you here. I do have a personal stake in this, I'm not staked currently, but I understand. I appreciate what you're doing.

Monica: Thank you. It's really important stuff.

Jeff: Yes, it is.

Becky: Before we get into Mission Beelieve, Monica, can you tell us your bee story? How did you get started? Just really briefly.

Monica: Tristan, my son, got me started in beekeeping. When he was graduating from high school, I asked him, "Now what?" He's like, "I want to be a beekeeper." I'm like, "You're crazy." I'm like, "We don't have land for it. I don't know how you're going to do this." Literally, I think it was six months later, we moved out to the country and he turned to me, he's like, "We have land now. Can I beekeep?" I'm like, "Okay, let's look into it and all this stuff." November rolled around. It was actually October. He's like, "The college has a beekeeping class." I'm like, "Oh, really? Are you going to sign up for it?" He's like, "Yes, I'm thinking about it."

A few weeks went by, me and my husband decided for his birthday to buy him a hive. A full hive set up that he had to build from scratch, build the frames, everything. Because if you're going to learn this, you've got to learn it from the ground up. That was like our mentality on it. He was so excited. A couple more weeks passed and I asked him if he had signed up for the class. He's like, "No, but I'm going to. I'm going to do it tonight." I'm like, "How about we do it together?" He was like, "Really?" I thought he was going to be like, "Eh."

Jeff: Mom.

Monica: Normal to me.

[laughter]

Right. He just got really excited. He was like, "Yes." We dove in head first. We took our beekeeping class, built our hives and just fell in love. When we got our first colonies, they came with EFB.

Becky: Oh, gosh.

Monica: Yes. We had to learn quick how to take care of these little ladies and how important it was to be well-educated in taking care of them. Not just knowing what you need to do as a beekeeper, but understanding why you're doing what you're doing as a beekeeper. My first year, I went to the Eastern Apiculture Society's annual conference and I learned so much in that week. I was just like, "Wow, I need to treat for Varroa."

[laughter]

It just went from there. When I started all of this, I had really been in such a weird place in my life. I was a stay-at-home mom. It's all I was, was a stay-at-home mom. I took care of my kids. I know that's very rewarding to have, but I needed something. It was very quickly, beekeeping filled that void. I always say that beekeeping saved my life and saved my family because it did. It filled that void. I wanted to figure out a way that I could share what I experienced and what the bees gave me with the community.

I love bugs. I love pollinators. I'm a nut. My beekeeping club, when I first started, thought I was the nuttiest one. They're like, "If you want to do it and you can get the people to volunteer, go for it." That's my thing. It was really addictive. I was like, "This could really help somebody." I started working with kids. I created a whole children's program with tons of activities, interactive activities, but it wasn't the area that-- I knew what I received from the bees the kids were not going to receive that same effect. Maybe 1 out of 100 kids, I needed to really figure out a place that this would work.

We had worked with veterans, and I was talking to Tristan and he's like, "I think we should do it in the veteran community. Why not? I think it's really needed." At the time, there wasn't a lot of veteran beekeeping programs. We started building our bees and figuring out the structure of the program, trying to figure out how we wanted it to flow because I needed to have an educational-based program. It was extremely important for us to be able to educate these men and women the best way we could, where if they're getting started, they know the bee, the beekeeper, and the colony. That was really, really important to us and where they are.

Becky: How long ago was that, that you actually started the program?

Monica: Over three and a half years ago, we started the program.

Jeff: You're located in Maryland?

Monica: Yes. We have our headquarters in Maryland.

Jeff: Eastern or Western Maryland?

Monica: We're in Central Maryland. We are in Carroll County. Our farm for Mission Beelieve is located about 15 minutes south of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. That's just put the proximity of where we're located at.

Jeff: I chose East and West and I missed it both. It was right in the middle.

Becky: [laughs]

Monica: Yes. Because there's so much ag East and West, but we're in that central ag location too. A little historic area. It's really neat.

Jeff: Really fits the profile of your program.

Monica: It does. It's really nice to have a headquarters and a place to have our workshops, a place to gather, a place to open up to the community. Our veterans and first responders that are in the program, which we call partners, our partners feel comfortable at the facility. When we have events that are open up to the community, they volunteer, they help us out. It's fantastic because it helps them feel comfortable with being in groups of people and being in the community and knowing that, "Hey, this is okay."

It's funny because we run our program, everyone's like, "Oh, what's Mission Beelieve?" I say, "It's an educational and therapeutic beekeeping program. We provide beginner beekeeping education and we do continued education through workshops and monthly meetings." It's really important for us to stay connected as much as possible. Because of our platform and our program, what we've put together, it's reaching a lot farther than just my local community, even my local state.

As we were building this platform, it was COVID. Everything was virtual at that point. We had started on a virtual platform. We kept that going. Our monthly meetings, which are continued education meetings, are virtual. We can reach across the nation, even to other countries, because we actually have some veterans that are-- Oh, they're not veterans. They're active duty service members that are stationed outside of the country taking our class and jumping in the meetings and stuff. They get up really early. [chuckles]

Becky: That's great.

Monica: It is. I just really feel that making sure that these men and women have a good educational support system and someone there to be present when they need that. That's my biggest goal with this program, is to make us at Mission Beelieve, myself as the director and Tristan as the director, and our other volunteers that work with the program, we try to make ourselves available as possible to anybody who needs a phone call, needs a beekeeper in the hive with them basically, but over the phone. We really wanted to have that available. It's nice that we've been able to create that with the volunteer help that we have for the program.

Becky: Can I ask, Monica? How many men and women has your program touched so far as far as supporting them through beekeeping in any way?

Monica: 189.

Becky: That is a big number for a few years in. That's really impressive. I think you put together a whole class, was it two years ago? You hit the ground running.

Monica: That was my biggest goal, was to get that beginner class. That was extremely important to me. Becky was actually part of that class. Tonight is your night because we run our beginner course.

Becky: Oh, that's exciting.

Monica: Just ironically, isn't that--

Becky: [laughs]

Monica: I thought it was so funny. I'm like, "Oh, her night is this Thursday when I'm recording. It's so cool." What we did is we put a beginner beekeeping class together with influential beekeepers. Our men and women would watch these presentations and learn from these individuals and know who to turn to for information instead of just turning to some random YouTuber. There's some fantastic information

on YouTube and all of these people have information on YouTube, which is great, or a podcast, or they've reached a goal that we'd like our men and women to be able to reach with our master beekeepers that we've brought into. We just try to influence them in different ways so they know where to turn to in the community when they do need help or want to dig up some new information so that they're guided down the right path.

Jeff: Let's take this opportunity to take a quick break and we'll be right back after this word from our friends at Betterbee.

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Becky: One more question about your class. I want you to brag a little bit because I found myself in extremely good company in questioning why you chose me. Could you just share a couple of the instructors who just said yes to you right away when you asked them?

Monica: We were very honored. We have Dr. Jamie Ellis and Amy Vu. We have Cameron Jack, Dr. Humberto Boncristiani, Dennis vanEngelsdorp, which was amazing to be able to get him to come in. It's been fantastic being able to work with everybody. Jennifer Berry is on there. I just adore her. I met her my very first year in beekeeping, just at a meeting, passing conversation, and she was just so nice. It was very nice to be such a newbie to beekeeping to have someone so willing to talk.

Dr. Humberto was the same way. I met him my second year in beekeeping and we had the most amazing conversation about hive beetles because I was battling them. I found a trick for me that worked. It was really nice to be able to have a scientific conversation at a beekeeping meeting on a break. He was just like, "Oh, yes." Man, the beekeeping community is a very welcoming, warm, comfortable place. I share that with my program. I want our individuals to understand why beekeeping can be so therapeutic. It's not just what the bees give us. It's also what the beekeeping community offers.

Becky: That's a great message.

Jeff: How are partners referred to your program? How do you initiate them into Mission Beelieve? What's their first meeting or first week of meetings?

Monica: I'll walk you through how we run the program. What we do is there's a colony link on our website that they go to join as a partner. They fill out an application. I ask, not like personal information, just their age, where they're from, their address, what's their interest in beekeeping, if they have bees, if they don't have bees, is there a chance that you're allergic? I ask if they can lift over 50 pounds. After we received the application, I reply with an email and I set up a one-on-one Zoom meeting with them.

We just had 64 partners sign up in a couple of days, but I still do each meeting individually because I feel like it's very important to have that one-on-one time to talk to them, talk to them about the program, talk to them about themselves. You see people's demeanors and you hear sometimes their nervousness or how comfortable they are, what they really need, and it helps us match them up with a mentor if we have one available in the program. We try to link them up with a mentor so that they have someone to work with their first year in beekeeping.

They don't have bees and we have a mentor available or they have access to the Mission Beelieve Farm. We ask them not to get bees their first year. We ask them to spend the year working with an experienced beekeeper to learn the ropes. We've seen this be so much more successful. They join the organization, even if they joined in the middle of the year, we run our beginner course three different times during the year because if someone signs up in July, they're only waiting a short time period to be able to take the fall class. It doesn't allow them to lose interest.

Before that, if we have a mentor available, I will get them connected. If not, I help them research for their local beekeeping organization to get them reaching out to them and then automatically they start with our monthly meetings and they jump on. A lot of times it's a little bit above their head. I always tell them that. I was like, "Just listen in. If you have any questions, never hesitate because as you hear this lingo, it'll start resonating in your head. You're hearing this today and it makes absolutely no sense to you, but next year it's going to make complete sense to you." Start and get familiar with the organization it's what we do.

Mission Beelieve does provide monthly hive dives, where we open up the teaching apiary with experienced beekeepers on the second Sunday of the month, where we have extra safety gear. If you don't have safety gear, this is just something you're curious to get into. The service members can come out and get in the hives, sit with us, watch us do an inspection. If they're experienced, I just tell them to take the tools and talk me through an inspection, stuff like that. It's a really nice way to keep them all connected and a place to go. We try to interact a couple of times a month with each other.

The hive dive is a live interaction, and then we do our monthly partner meeting, which is the continued ed, which is a virtual meeting. As time goes on, as Mission Beelieve is reaching to these other states, we are in need of mentors. I'm really hoping as time goes on, we could maybe get beekeeping organizations or local clubs where they're willing to do the hands-on workshops in their areas, where if a club has a teaching apiary that they're willing to open up their teaching apiary and do a hive dive with the men and women in that area. Those are future goals that we're working towards with the program that we'd really like to see happen.

Like I said, we just really started to grow fast. Now we're really in need of some mentors to help these men and women across the country.

Becky: I have to ask, Monica, what do you do with all the honey?

Monica: We sell the honey to create revenue for the program. We are a self-funded program. We do do fundraising and we have donations to the program, but we don't receive any funding from any special organization like the VA or anything like that. We do use all of our honey and our self-care products that we make and our T-shirts and hats to sell to make revenue for the program because we provide-- every partner that signs up and completes their interview with me and moves into the program, we send them textbooks to get them started in beekeeping. They have the beginner class and textbooks to get going.

Becky: I think somebody's going to want to know, can somebody buy a T-shirt online?

Monica: Yes. On our website, ww.missionbeelieve, we have a little play on words, it's B-E-E-L-I-E-V-E.com, we have an online store where you can buy our self-care products, the honey, and our T-shirts. We have the colony tab to be able to get involved. Under that colony tab, we have our partners to join, our mentors to join, and our volunteers to be able to join. We actually have requirements for our mentors. We require them to have a minimum of three years beekeeping experience successfully over winter colonies and is willing to share their beekeeping education and knowledge with these men and women and open up their apiaries.

Jeff: We'll have a link to your website in the show notes. For anybody who's taking notes, don't worry, they're there for you already.

Becky: Is there a geographical restriction to mentoring?

Monica: We need mentors across the country. A couple of states that we really need mentors in are Arkansas, Tennessee, Iowa, Montana, Utah, California, Arizona, New Mexico. Believe it or not, we do have a few mentors that are located in the South, but they're not in the region of the-- They're hours away from each other. I would like to try to stay within at least-- try to 40 minutes to an hour. I really feel like if you really want to do this that you would be willing to drive an hour. Just to get out of my town and get back to civilization-

Jeff: [laughs]

Monica: -to be at all the other beekeeping organizations, it's always an hour drive for me, so I feel like that's fair.

Jeff: Just to get to the grocery store.

Monica: Yes, exactly.

Jeff: Suffice it to say if you're anywhere in The States and you want to volunteer as a mentor for Mission Beelieve to reach out to you and you'd probably find a place for them within Mission Beelieve and you can help them get squared away.

Monica: The nice thing about being a mentor too, that we include you in all the mentors and all the extra activities. Even if we have our monthly meetings and we have a speaker come in, that link goes out to our mentors too so they're able to come in and listen to those speakers too so that they can benefit a little bit too out of anyone that is presenting during that month.

Jeff: You've worked with veterans and first responders for three years or so. As a beekeeper and as all of us as beekeepers understand the therapeutic benefit of just opening a hive and just the smells and the sounds and just going there and emptying your brain just to focus on the honey bees, what are some of the experiences that you could share from your partners, those who are working with you, of their first time opening a beehive or working with a beehive? What kind of transformational experiences have they related to you?

Monica: I've seen it saved lives. I've seen people come from pretty dark places and now are successful beekeepers. One of them has never lost a colony in the six years I've been working with him. Now he has a successful woodworking business, making beekeeping equipment for the entire community.

Jeff: That's powerful.

Becky: Very powerful.

Monica: It's very impactful. He is my reason I included first responders because I saw what it did for him and what this community offered to him for what he needed for his mental health. Not every day is a good day, but every day he has something positive to look forward to, and that's what our bees in the beekeeping community offer. That's what Mission Beelieve wants to show these men and women, that there is a community and a hobby or even a small business or God knows what you could turn it into if you believe in it. We want to show that that's there and there's a place for them. That they're needed and they're not forgotten.

Jeff: That's fantastic. I appreciate you sharing that with us. That's very powerful. Looking forward to the future, what are some of the long-term objectives that you have for Mission Beelieve? What do you envision for the veterans and first responders and the interaction with the broader beekeeping community?

Monica: As I spoke to you before, as the beekeeping community to create basically outreach yards for these men and women across the country. I'm really hoping to create a mentoring network that we can provide these workshops. I have put together worksheets so they know supplies that would be needed, talking points on each workshop. Maybe if they're not as versed in beekeeping as some of us that they don't have to worry about that, that it's all there for them to be able to help provide that workshop.

My biggest goal for Mission Beelieve is just to keep growing our educational program. I would like to get a second-year and beyond class going for our organization. Locally what we'd like to do is create a co-op. If we can get the co-op going locally that maybe we can encourage it through our mentors regionally to get it going. What we've seen in our program is really the most expensive side to beekeeping is extracting equipment and making it easy on yourself.

We did a little test run this year with a couple of our veterans where they brought in their hive bodies, we weighed them, initialed their frames, extracted their frames, weighed them again, and paid them for their weight in honey. What that did was create instant revenue for them. They didn't have to buy all the equipment, they didn't have to do all of the work. One of them is-- he's older. It's a lot of work to extract for him. It just took that extra bit away from him that he didn't have to do and he had quite a honey haul this year.

[laughter]

Becky: That's great.

Monica: Those are the things that we're looking to do in the future. Currently, one of the most exciting projects that we've been working on is building a therapeutic bee house for accessible beekeeping and for apitherapy. We've just finished the construction for the exterior of the building and we are going to begin construction of the interior here in a couple of weeks. We will be running AŽ hives from Slovenia and having a whole accessible program. I always say lead by example because I can't be everywhere. People will always, "Oh, can you do that?" I can't.

Jeff: [laughs]

Monica: I will show you how and I will help you. Our program really thrives on lead by example. That's what the therapeutic bee house is, that maybe if we get this up and running and the program's successful that other organizations will build therapeutic bee houses, VA hospitals. My imagination goes wild when I think about it because it could be so beneficial if they were reachable.

I know Maryland is far from a lot of places, so I'm hoping that locally who can benefit from our therapeutic bee house will show how beneficial one would be for someone who wants to have beekeeping accessible to them if they were physically challenged and if they wanted the apitherapy relief that the bees give from the bee air and the buzz sound of being in the house.

Jeff: Even just the fact that you're doing it, an experience that you'll be able to share with others about making an accessible bee house, it will be valuable for others around the country. Even if they can't visit, you'll be able to share that information, so I think that's fantastic.

Becky: Monica, can we talk money again really quickly?

Monica: Yes.

Becky: I think you need a lot of it [laughs] for all of your programming, but I know you've got an educational outreach fundraiser going on Facebook right now.

Monica: Yes, right now.

Becky: You still have little ways to go to meet your goal.

Monica: Yes. We're trying to raise $5,000 for textbooks and other outreach materials that we provide for our partners in our program.

Becky: Depending upon when this airs, my guess is even if you've met that goal, you still will need some funds for your other projects. You shared the website and I hope that anybody who's moved by any of this would maybe go ahead and visit your page and hopefully support you.

Monica: We would really appreciate that. A program like this, the only way for us to be successful is by community support. We're self-sustaining with selling our products, but to be able to grow, the only way to be able to do that is through donations, and we know that. Any community support it's very impactful for a program like ours.

Becky: I saw that fundraiser on Facebook. I know, I love following your Facebook page to see what you're up to. Are you any place besides Facebook that people can look for regular updates from you?

Monica: We are also on Instagram and LinkedIn. We have a profile on each one of those platforms.

Becky: Will you be at any conventions this winter?

Monica: I was actually going to mention that. We're really excited about it. Kamon Reynolds had reached out to us and invited us to the North American

beekeeping expo in January. We are excited to have a booth there and be able to share our message and hopefully get mentor support and new partners involved in the program and make sure that they have the support system that they need to continue in beekeeping.

Jeff: I plan on being there as well. I look forward to meeting you in person.

Monica: Yes. Come see our booth.

Jeff: Monica, it's been truly a pleasure having you on the show talking about the good work that you're doing for first responders and veterans. We know beekeeping is good for everybody, but it's really good for those who are looking for that diversion and that release in the stresses they have in their life. Thank you for the service and the work that you're doing and you're providing.

Becky: The bees, the veterans, the first responders, and the beekeepers, they're all lucky to have you. Thanks for everything you're doing.

Monica: Oh, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. I appreciate the community help. Becky, someone like you who just was willing to jump in and volunteer to help with the beginner class was amazing. Volunteering your time like you did, and I know how busy you are, time is money, it was just really, really important to us. We appreciate that kind of support.

Becky: It was my honor. I think I said yes within seconds, so [chuckles] thank you for asking me.

Monica: Thank you. [music]

Jeff: Monica has a great program going on. I really like talking with folks who've developed a selfless program to help other people through introducing them to bees and beekeeping and all the benefits we know as beekeepers, but how important that is to those people that are in need.

Becky: Yes. The energy she has put into building a program and the thoughtfulness as far as including education and support and regular meetings, it's so exciting to see it grow and expand so quickly. Not only is she working hard, but she's also involved in this with her son, Tristan. It's so exciting to see it be a family operation. There are just so many levels where her program is impressive.

Jeff: I enjoy that she's also inviting others in the beekeeping community to assist with the program, Justin Ruger, Jonna from AZ Hives or AŽ Hives, and others in the community. I think it's a great program. I encourage our listeners to look up Mission Beelieve. If you want to be a mentor and assist remotely, that would be a fantastic use of your time.

Becky: Agreed. Share with a veteran or first responder because she's growing.

Jeff: That about wraps it up for this episode. Before we go, I want to encourage our listeners to rate us five stars on Apple Podcasts or wherever you download and stream the show. Even better, write a review and let other beekeepers looking for a new podcast know what you like. You can get there directly from our website by clicking on the reviews along the top of any web page.

We want to thank our regular episode sponsors, Global Patties, Strong Microbials, and especially Betterbee, for their longtime support of this podcast. Thanks to Northern Bee Books for their generous support. Finally, and most importantly, we want to thank you, the  Beekeeping Today Podcast listener, for joining us on this show. Feel free to leave us questions or comments at "Leave a Comment" section under each episode on the website. We'd love to hear from you. Thanks a lot, everybody.

[00:43:46] [END OF AUDIO]