Liberty City Bee Girls is a project of CombCutters: Live Bee Removal & Education Service - a small business owned and operated by two female beekeepers dedicated to preserving South Florida’s honeybee population through relocation of wild beehives and education on importance of honeybees.

The Liberty City Bee Girls program seeks to bring 7-10 year old girls from Liberty City - a historically lower to middle income black neighborhood - together, to learn the art of beekeeping. The Bee Girls will learn the inner workings of a beehive and why bees are integral to our survival, through crafts, games, and other bee/pollination centered activities. Each week they will don beekeeping gear, and open up the hives, first getting comfortable with the bees, and later actually doing the work of tending the hives.

Beekeeping is a powerful educational tool that these beekeepers use to cover topics that reach far beyond the bees, themselves. Using bee society as a model, the Bee Girls topics of learning will range from food systems, to geometry and engineering, to communication and social skills.

The Bee Girls will meet with CombCutters’ beekeepers on a weekly basis for 2 hour sessions. This program will run for six weeks and will be free of charge to all participants.

Liberty City Bee Girls creates a safe and empowering environment for girls from frontline communities to gain knowledge in a relevant, accessible and fun way. The program gives participants direct avenues to understand and change their environment and food systems, while they build confidence and confront fears and stereotypes they are faced with.

By the end of the six week series, the Bee Girls will be able to handle bees with confidence and lead tours through the apiary, for other kids and community members while sharing pertinent information about the bees.

And who doesn't love seeing kids smiling big in bee suits?!