Thank you so much, Vicki, for your very kind introduction.
Good day everyone!! I wish to congratulate all the other recipients on receiving this bee-utiful award.
I wouldn’t be here today if not for Phyllis Stiles. A dear friend, my mentor, the founder, long-time director, and the brilliance and passion behind Bee City USA.
So, I’d like to share with you the 3 important things I have learned since starting Bee City Canada almost 5 years ago.
SHARE POSITIVE MESSAGES…and the world-wide movement of “Regenerative Agricuture” is a message we all need to be sharing and promoting. If you are not sure what it is all about, there is a new film out called “KISS THE GROUND”, available on Netflix.
BUILD RELATIONSHIPS with our indigenous brothers and sisters across the Americas. There is so much we can learn from their ancestoral wisdom. I am so honoured and proud that 2 First Nation Communites, T’it’q’et and Xwisten, both in British Columbia, joined the Bee City Family. Through them and an Anishinaabe elder, Mary Anne Caibaiosai, I learned the meaning of relationships, whether about our relationship to the land, or the plants, or the flyers, or the crawlers, or the swimmers, or the 4-legged, or even the 2-legged,…All relationships should have qualities of respect, reciprocity and responsibility.
TO BUILD A BETTER FUTURE WE NEED TO FOCUS ON EDUCATING OUR CHILDREN… Children. care and they want to make a positive difference on this planet. Let’s give them the tools to make this happen. Every school should have a garden, and every child should feel their hands in mother earth and plant the seeds needed for a healthier landscape for our pollinators. And every child, should be EXCITED, not afraid when they see a bee!
Thank you so much.
Shelly Candel
Director, Bee City Canada