beegirl.org/blog

Morning: Enjoy breakfast at your hotel*, join “Bee Yoga” with Krista Holland at 7:30am, then check out the multitudes of activities in Southern Oregon: Lithia Park, Downtown Ashland, North Mountain Park, ScienceWorks Hands-On Museum, Schneider Museum of Art, golfing, miles of world class hiking, biking, and running trails, or get up early and make a dash to Crater Lake National Park, or do some world class birding in the Upper Klamath National Wildlife Refuge. We are still finalizing the schedule, but you can look forward to: Anna Gieselman, Bee Amour Jewelry, Topic: The Art of Bees; Robin Jones, Honey Girl Grows, Topic: Marketing and Communications for Your Bee Business; Molly Romero, Active Acupuncture of Ashland, Topic: Health Through Honey Bees; Katrina Klett, Elevated Honey Co., Topic: Global Beekeeping Research and Education; Kathryn Prince, The Xerces Society, Topic: Native Bees and Their Habitat; and more! **  - or - participate in the Rouge Valley Farm Tour and come check out the Bee Girl Organization’s bee habitat research and education habitat projects at the Farm at Southern Oregon University and The Bee Girl Center for Education and Research.

If you would like to stay at Ashland Hills, our rate is as follows: To reserve your room by phone, call the Hotel directly at 541.482.8310 or toll free 855.482.8310. To reserve your room online, visit , click “Book Online,” enter the date of your stay and number of nights, then enter our GROUP ID #256952 in the Group ID field. About the hotel: Newly renovated hotel located on 14 acre property overlooking the hills of Ashland offers hip, retro-modern design and numerous modern amenities and services. Located at the base of the Siskiyou mountains, 12 miles north of the border with California, off the I-5, we’re a short drive to downtown Ashland, and offer easy access to all the attractions of Southern Oregon, including wine country, the world-renowned Oregon Shakespeare Festival, world-class dining, quick access to the great outdoors with the mountain lakes, the Siskiyou bike path, Mount Ashland ski resort, and Emigrant Lake and its water slide just minutes away.

After building a life-changing relationship with his host family, he continued to work with the youth-leadership organization Amigos de las Americas for three additional seasons in Mexico, Ecuador and most recently in Costa Rica directing cross-cultural volunteer trail projects in Carara National Park. He spent two years in Del Norte County discovering new avenues for working with youth as a school-based mentor in the garden, woodshop, and ropes course. He also directed a summer trail crew of high school students removing invasive weeds in the Six Rivers National Recreation Area and led a Redwood Canopy Tour Zip Line. The following two years he spent working for the Smith River Alliance coordinating volunteer projects and counting salmon during the spawning season.

On Friday, January 11th from 9:00 am – Noon, 343 local and visiting elementary-aged kids, and 267 teachers, parents, grandparents, aunties and uncles, and ABF attendees were welcomed to the Sheraton Myrtle Beach Convention Hotel to participate in the “Kids and Bees” program. So much appreciation and gratitude to our sponsor, The Foundation for the Preservation of Bees, and our host, The American Beekeeping Federation, and also the hardworking staff at the Myrtle Beach Sheraton (who rushed to our aid when we had a puker! ! ); to our volunteers from the Myrtle Beach community, the ABF community, the Blackwater Beekeepers, and Savannah Bee Company; to our interns Stephanie and Andre, to our super volunteer Mike, to Phylicia (home in Oregon with her new baby, Olivia, and totally rocking coordination from afar); to the HONEY Convention characters; to GloryBee and Mann Lake for donating honey and beeswax supplies, and to our partners, Carolina Bee Farm, The Burns and the Bees, Moore Farms Botanical Garden, and the Myrtle Beach Garden Club for bringing beekeeping gear and educational materials. My main goal for the American Beekeeping Federation Kids and Bees event is to create an experience for kids, and adults too, to be immersed in a bubble of positivity. For more tips on how to teach kids about bees, please visit for our free e-book, “Kids and Bees Handbook: Ideas & Inspirations for Teaching Kids