This past September, St. Ed’s was featured on Channel 5 in a news segment that covered our school’s beneficial agricultural programs. One of the primary focuses of the news report was St. Ed’s very own Bee Club, which was recently formed during the 2022-23 school year. Mrs. Hardin and senior co-presidents Johnny Satanek and Sean Sterling have worked together to bring the club from the ground up. The club has grown immensely since its inception, both in its population and overall accomplishments. To achieve their success, however, a collaborative effort from each member of the club is required. Co-president Sean Sterling outlined how each member has a different role to fulfill. Some students work directly with the hives but the club also has a business manager and a social media director. As for the presidents Johnny Satanek and Sean Sterling, their job is to oversee the club and manage marketing and promotional activities. Each member also learns methods of sustainable harvesting and taking care of and preserving the lives of the bees. Keeping the hives running is not an easy task to fulfill, so educating the members is rather important to keep the club running smoothly.
At the moment, the club operates just one hive which is situated on the rooftop of St. Eds. Sterling says their first hive has had “explosive success”.
“The hive started with 30,000 [bees] and has almost doubled in size,” Sterling stated.
With the growth of the hive came copious amounts of honey as well. The club’s first harvest produced around 40 pounds of honey, which according to Sterling, “is how much you’d expect to see made in a year from a veteran hive.” The fact that a first-year hive is producing these numbers is providing optimism within the club, and they hope to expand to two hives in the upcoming years.
Although their hive is now shut down for the winter, Sterling mentioned that there could be opportunities for students to purchase honey as early as this March. Recently the club also sold honey at one of St. Ed’s many open houses, selling out of all but one of the jars. Sterling tells me that their proceeds go to charity and also help fund the club for future expansion.
Sterling credits faculty members Mrs. Hardin and Mr. Sofio for the continued successful operation of the club. And the success of their leadership is evident. As aforementioned, the Bee Club has expanded greatly over the past year increasing from four participants to nearly twenty full-time members. The club hopes to continue to grow at St. Ed’s as well, getting even more students involved in their beneficial activities.
