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Earlier this month, The Mountain Times reported on the Bee Aware science team’s campaign to bring awareness to the plight of the honeybee.

Just weeks later, the homeschooled High Country students found themselves in the midst of some of the best young minds in science at the fifth annual White House Science Fair. 

It was only last week that the Bee Aware N.C. team members learned they would be taking the trip to Washington, D.C., for the science fair and more.

The fair, which took place on Monday, March 23, hosted 36 teams total from around the country. The students raised awareness for their project through addressing reporters and talking about their project with key government officials, according to a news release.

“It was awesome,” 15-year-old team member Kate Fitzpatrick said in a news release. “I think we got to spread awareness to a lot of kind of ‘higher-up’ people there.”

According to the release, the team didn’t get to meet President Obama personally, but they were politically star struck when one of the White House “First Dogs” took off with a stuffed honeybee that was on the team’s display.

In addition to participating in the science fair, the Bee Aware N.C. team was able to tour the White House’s pollinator garden and speak to the chief gardener and head pastry chef, who uses honey from the garden’s hive to prepare deserts.

While meeting with chief horticulturalist Jim Adams, the students of the Bee Aware team learned that you can strategically place hives close to pollen-producing flowers, yet far enough away to prevent visitors from getting stung. The single White House hive produced 149 pounds of honey in 2014. 

The team will utilize its newfound knowledge when planning the hive it will maintain at Grandfather Mountain this spring.

Bee Aware N.C. plans to open its bee sanctuary at Grandfather Mountain this spring. Not only will the honeybees pollinate the local environment, but they will also serve as an educational awareness tool on the plight of the honeybees.

“In the U.S., about 100 million tons of pesticides are put on gardens annually, and it’s having a big effect on our bees,” team coach Jenny Fitzpatrick said. 

Fitzpatrick said that honeybees, which are responsible for pollinating our food supply and making honey, are dying off due to pesticides, monofarming and stress.

On Tuesday, the team met with Rep. Virginia Foxx, observed a vote in the Senate and toured our nation’s capitol, according to the release.

As the students return from Washington, they still have a lot on their plate. The group is raising money and awareness through a North Carolina Save the Honeybees specialty license plate. 

For the plate to be considered and passed as a bill, the team needs 500 committed buyers. The group still needs about 120 more people to commit to buying a plate before the April 1 deadline.

The license plate, which is the cheapest of any full-background N.C. license plate, costs $15, $5 of which goes to Bee Aware and $10 of which goes back to the state. 

The money raised through the license plate program would go toward printing Bee Aware brochures, supplying seeds and other materials for the beehives and other general maintenance fees for the colony at Grandfather Mountain. 

For more information, or to purchase your own Save the Honeybees license plate, visit www.beeawarenc.org.  

http://www.wataugademocrat.com/mountaintimes/abuzz-in-washington/article_2359b146-d327-11e4-a33f-e3c48f304c18.html