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When we are not physically in Haiti, we are actively engaged in beekeeping in our home area. We attend bee meeting, provide beekeeper mentoring sessions for those new to beekeeping, working with our local Cooperative Extension System in their public and school programs about beekeeping.
We maintain bee colonies at our local high school’s agriculture teaching farm and at a local nature preserve for the general public to learn about honey bees.
Claybird is currently working with beekeepers who live in Port au Prince to increase the knowledge of beekeeping and we will be providing the beekeeping equipment that they need.
Currently, we have over 20 beekeepers and 32 bee colonies of bees in Haiti.
Claybird Bee Education Association has obtained a grant from the MC&D organization to obtain quality video recording equipment. This equipment is used to video beekeeping activities out in the bee yard and other locations for use in the beekeeping classes that we teach. Some of the videos have been used in Zoom-held training sessions for information that could not be presented any other way.
Claybird Bee Education Association received a Specialty Block Grant from the Alabama Department of Agriculture to obtain a custom fabricated 8.5’ x 16’ enclosed trailer to be set up for use as a mobile classroom. It is used to promote and education audiences around the our area about beekeeping and the importance of honey bees.
By Lonnie Funderburg
(as published in The Stinger, the newsletter of the Alabama Beekeepers Association.
An Alabama non-profit organization, Claybird Bee Education Association, Inc., has been established for the purpose of promoting and presenting beekeeping to underserved areas of Alabama and in selected international locations.
Claybird Bee Education Association, Inc., based in Opelika, has received approval by the Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) charitable tax-exempt educational organization. This means that contributions and donations made to this corporation are tax deductible.
Damon Wallace, current president of Claybird Bee Education Association, Inc., will report on the activities currently undertaken by the charity as well as requests for resources of materials, funds, and instructors that will be needed in the near future around Alabama and elsewhere.
President Damon Wallace, Vice President Richard Battles, and Treasurer Linda Wyckoff will be developing strategy and programs in the coming months as the activities of the corporation come to fruition.
If you wish to contribute toward or participate in this worthwhile and needed work, please contact Damon Wallace at Claybird Bee Education Association.
