The Middleburg/Clay Hill Library will be showing off its collection of beehives and pollinator garden on Saturday, Feb. 29, from 10 a.m. to noon.
The 4-H Stingers club will be welcoming the honeybees to the library and giving a presentation to the community about their importance.
The event marks the culmination of a project started more than a year ago. The library formed a leadership group to team up with the 4-H Stingers Club to apply for a $1,500 grant from the Whole Kids Foundation and Whole Foods Markets to make it happen.
The club, that includes seven volunteers, ages 8 to 14, worked for eight hours over two Saturdays to create the honeybee habitat.
The Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens donated the garden soil and the honeybees were donated by Dave Sieruta, a local beekeeper and volunteer with the club. The hives are being purchased with grant funds.
The honey that the club collects will be sold to raise funds for the maintenance of the site.
“The project has multiple benefits in that it creates a new healthy bee colony in the Middleburg area and will help educate people about the importance of bees, while reducing the fear often associated with them,” UF/IFAS Extension Agent Matt Olson said in an email to WJCT News.
The Middleburg/Clay Hill Library is located at 2245 Aster Ave. in Middleburg.
