At the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition’s 91st ‘Spring Home and Garden Show’ from April 5th-7th many exhibitors set up their wares to help Thunder Bay Citizens make plans for their home improvements over the good months ahead! Booth No. 28 had been reserved for the Thunder Bay Beekeepers’ Association. I will take you to the show!
What happens when you put an architect in charge of an exhibit? Spell j-a-z-z, actually, describe passion. This new hobby (this word is not really appropriate, “strong” enough), a chance to have an intimate relationship with one of the amazing forces of nature, bees, has put me in another zone of design. All the stops were pulled out and just under two weeks many elements of an Exhibit came together: a banner was realized, a display hive ordered, a shelving unit procured from Home Sense, brochures were ordered from the “authorities having jurisdiction” (U of Guelph, OBA) t-shirts and buttons and business cards . . . all this and the most studied and touched and sniffed piece of evidence was a chunk of honeycomb. (!)
Children. Children were the inspiration for all the machinations, how to engage them in a friendly way- to invite them into the hive to sit for awhile, to colour and perhaps talk about and learn what they know about what is happening to the BEES.
After the take down Sunday evening, it was obvious Thunder Bay understands they can help. Over 150 brochures of “Bee Friendly Plants” had been taken home. High-Five!
The Bee Blog by Rita Komendant 