See It: The Community being helped

The inspiration for Hives for Lives was an incredible man named Michael Otto Houlahan. He was an intelligent, loving and beautiful man. Four years ago, at the age of 63 he passed away from the deadly disease of cancer. He was my grandfather. I was in the 6th grade when he died. Shortly after his death, my other grandparents came to visit my house. They had beehives that, at the time, were simply a hobby my sister and I shared with them. They were talking about how they didn’t know what we should do with all of the honey. My little sister Carly and I suggested we sell it for charity. All of our profits would go to the American Cancer Society to help fight cancer: to help those suffering, to prevent others from suffering, and to honor my grandfather. Hives for Lives is important to me because it helps keep my grandfather alive in my heart and in my memories. My little sister came up with the name and logo. So far we have donated over $22,000 to the American Cancer Society and are still going srong in our fourth year. We have been recognized as Pennsylvania's top two youth volunteers for the Community Spirit Awards, by the Barron Award for environmentalism, and even by the President himself (yeah, of the US!) in person! I feel like we are creating hope for the future and a way for kids like me to feel as if they make a difference.

Our efforts on Hives for Lives are broad. My sister and I are the founders and run the company, but we now have a lot of help from our friends. We now sell over 1,000 punds of honey a year, and could sell more honey and raise more bees if we had more help.

We hand harvest, spin, strain, bottle, cap, and label all of our honey. We make the lip balm and candles we sell. We email customers and those interested in helping. We give business presentations and go to business meetings; we speak at schools and hospitals. We handle website sales (www.hivesforlives.com and www.hivesforlives.org ) and update our site. We spread the word, finding ways to advertise and publicize Hives for Lives. We sell honey at events around our community. We make calls to hospital gift shops, food stores, kitchen shops and other retail stores to sell our products. I now also run the Hives for Lives Young Business Leaders club I started at my school. Hives for Lives both national and local and we have now sold in 17 states and two countries.