THUNDER BAY – LOCAL – This Saturday the Thunder Bay Country Market and the Thunder Bay Beekeepers Association (TBBA) will come together with a dozen of the area’s greenest organizations and businesses to celebrate Earth Day. In addition to the amazing array of hands-on displays and activities that visitors to this annual Market event have come to expect, the public is invited to attend as the Beekeepers present an award to a local resident who has been a member of both organizations since their beginnings.
“Our Earth Day events have always focused on encouraging people to do more of the right things, not just less of the wrong ones,” says Michael Quibell, spokesperson for the Thunder Bay Country Market. “This Saturday while we’re offering visitors some fun and interesting ways to do more the Beekeepers will be honouring a lady who makes doing more part of her daily routine.” The name of the lady in question will not be released until the presentation ceremony on Saturday, at which time the TBBA will be bestowing an Honourary Lifetime Membership with the Thunder Bay Beekeepers Association (TBBA) upon her.
“She and her family have been keeping bees for over 30 years,” says Linda Turk of the TBBA.
“She’s been enormously important to the development of a beekeeping community in this area and has mentored many of our members. It is partly due to her active support that our local bee population remains free of the varoa and trachaeal mites which have damaged other bee populations worldwide. We’re very pleased to be able to honour her at the Market, where she’ll be surrounded by longtime friends and well-wishers and where she’s played another significant community role.”
Presenting members of the Beekeepers will meet at their famous “Everything But the Bees” display at 10:30am on Saturday before proceeding to the honouree’s vendor booth where they will surprise her with the award. In the meantime other community partners will offer displays featuring activities ranging from art projects and soil percolation demonstrations to learning about contentious City issues like the draining of Williams Bog and the protection of the green space on the former LPH grounds.
The Earth Day event will run during regular Market hours this Saturday in the CLE Dove Building, from 8am until 1pm. More information on the event is available at www.thunderbaycountrymarket.com.