The Fund for Santa Barbara Awards $4,000 Grant to Lompoc Valley Beekeepers Association
Lompoc Valley Beekeepers Association president Jim Rice, left, and director Archie Mitchell attend The Fund for Santa Barbara’s annual Grant Awards Party.
Lompoc Valley Beekeepers Association president Jim Rice, left, and director Archie Mitchell attend The Fund for Santa Barbara’s annual Grant Awards Party. (Lompoc Valley Beekeepers Association photo)
By Kate Griffith for the Lompoc Valley Beekeepers Association | Published on 12.18.2014 8:40 a.m.
The Fund for Santa Barbara has awarded a $4,000 grant to the Lompoc Valley Beekeepers Association.
On Dec. 3, LVBA president Jim Rice and director Archie Mitchell attended The Fund’s annual Grant Awards Party at the Cabrillo Pavilion Arts Center in Santa Barbara, where Mitchell spoke about LVBA and the association’s proposed projects for 2015.
With grant funds, the Lompoc Valley Beekeepers Association seeks to purchase observation hives and package bees for outreach to local schools and Boys and Girls Clubs, to purchase books and videos to establish a library, to host special events, to distribute a newsletter and flyers, to maintain a website and to purchase supplies necessary to maintain honeybees in the Lompoc Bird, Butterfly and Bee sanctuary.
Mitchell blazed the trail in creating a beekeepers association in Lompoc and in teaching beekeeping courses at Allan Hancock College. He wrote The Fund grant proposal seeking to provide environmental justice for honeybees and native pollinators.
“Honeybees and native pollinators are declining globally,” Mitchelle said. “[T]here is justifiable concern that without more activism, the majority of citizens will sit back and watch while our food supplies are threatened by the steady decline of pollinators.”
Mitchell also seeks to change the bee ordinance in Lompoc.
The Fund for Santa Barbara is a nonprofit community foundation that supports organizations working for social, economic, environmental & political change in Santa Barbara County. This includes grassroots organizing against discrimination of all kinds, supporting the rights & dignity of working people, promoting community self-determination, organizing for peace and nonviolence, working to improve the quality of our environment, and building cross-issue/cross-constituency coalitions and alliances. The Fund raises money through donations of all sizes in order to provide grants and technical assistance. Since its founding in 1980, The Fund has awarded more than $5 million to over 900 projects. Click here to learn more.
The Lompoc Valley Beekeepers Association seeks the promotion and advancement of beekeeping through best management practices, the education and mentoring of people about honey bees and beekeeping and increasing public awareness of environmental concerns affecting honey bees. LVBKA meetings are held monthly at Flying Goat Cellars Tasting Room in Lompoc. The association is involved in community education programs, swarm removal and mentoring new beekeepers. Click here to learn more.
— Kate Griffith represents the Lompoc Valley Beekeepers Association.