Ivy Academy office manager Ansley Eichhorn, left, and Exceptional Education teacher Holly Slater are learning how to keep honeybees over the next several months.Ivy Academy office manager Ansley Eichhorn and Exceptional Education teacher Holly Slater are embarking on their own educational venture this spring – and it’s going to be sweeter than honey.
Thanks to a Junior League of Chattanooga mini-grant they received last fall, Eichhorn and Slater are learning how to keep honeybees through a Tennessee Valley Beekeepers Association mentorship program. The program lasts seven months, during which time they will be mentored by a beekeeper and receive their own hive in April to be placed at the school.
Eichhorn said they have big plans for their newfound knowledge of bees.
“Our grant is written to start the honeybee program, which will be the forerunner for our pollination program,” she said. “It’s also going to help our garden a lot.”
The plan is to grow the school’s garden into a community garden and a weekly farmers market that would be run by the students during the school year. Money and produce from the garden would go back to the school as well as to the local food bank, Eichhorn explained.