Video: Parade, festival launch West Seattle Bee Garden

The West Seattle Bee Garden is officially launched! As you’ll see in our video, Seattle Police motorcycle officers, the Sounders’ Sound Wave musicians, City Council President Sally Clark were part of the parade bringing the bees to the garden from West Seattle Elementary at midday today – along with lots of kids, from Roxhill Elementary as well as WSES:

(Photos by WSB’s Katie Meyer)
It was all part of a festival celebrating the start of the garden at High Point Commons Park, with a demonstration-beehive enclosure, a pollination garden, and more.

As with all of today’s big events, we have more photos of this one to add here later when this busy day calms down – check back!

ADDED 8:38 PM: As promised, more photos – starting with this one:

Viewing ensued after the beehives arrived in the back of the pickup truck seen at the end of our parade video, above. And then – on to their new home!

If you missed it in earlier stories, here’s the wide view of aforementioned new home:

Its exterior is full of information as well as places to view the bees:

And today proved there was no shortage of curiosity:

In addition to volunteer power, student effort has gone into the Bee Garden, too – including its mosaic welcome:

Still adding more!

ADDED MONDAY NIGHT: More views with the hives!

Yet more bee-honoring costumes:

Here’s Lauren with Krista Connor, West Seattle beekeeper:

More major bee fans:

23 Replies to "Video: Parade, festival launch West Seattle Bee Garden"

  • I'mcoveredinbees May 19, 2013 (3:06 pm)

    Doh! You guys clipped the bees–at the end of the parade!

    That was a super fun fest. So many hands went into making the bee garden a reality. The enclosure and garden are soooo beautiful. Congrats to West Seattle Bee Garden and thank you for bringing bees and bee awareness to our community. <3

  • WSB May 19, 2013 (4:29 pm)

    Were they in the pickup truck? Our videographer parachuted in at the last minute after Summer Streets setup ran a bit long. Anyway, we do have photos of them bee-ing carried into the enclosure and I’ll be adding those, among others. Thanks! – TR

  • alkigirl May 19, 2013 (7:18 pm)

    Yep….the hives with the bees were in the truck! The hives are truly a work of art! Thanks to Shipwreck Honey for their donation of time and hard work making the hives (each one takes about a week to make), and also, for giving a hive with bees to the project. Their dedication to bees and the community are heartfelt, genuine and just downright amazing! Local honey is the best! http://www.shipwreckhoney.com Check ’em out! You’ll be glad you did!

  • i'mcoveredinbees May 19, 2013 (7:45 pm)

    Awesome. Yes, they were. And thank you for bee-ing there.

  • marco May 19, 2013 (8:17 pm)

    @i’mcoveredinbees – Just making sure that everyone gets that fabulous reference ;)

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs-tl6GBOBo

    Thanks for covering, WSB – we had a blast releasing the bees today! :)

    https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151502916284753&l=3378969961090239393

    • WSB May 19, 2013 (8:24 pm)

      I am NOW finally getting to add more of our photos, fwiw. The power outage set us back two hours – we weren’t even home from stopping at the store to get dinner post-Summer Streets packup, when the texts started coming in. Will look forward to visiting the Bee Garden in the not-too-distant future to see it myself! Congrats! – TR

  • ilovebees May 19, 2013 (9:17 pm)

    What a great event – it is so cool how multiple groups came together to make this happen. Lots of people put in a lot of hard work and donated a lot of time to this project – huge thanks for a fun day and a beautiful space!

  • I'mcoveredinbees May 19, 2013 (9:37 pm)

    @marco Yay! You got it! :)

  • alkigirl May 19, 2013 (11:00 pm)

    Could you post the picture of the guy who built and transported the hives to the school (Daniel Sullivan), with all of the kids, posing in front of the truck with the hives in the trailer? Would love to see that one too!

    • WSB May 19, 2013 (11:42 pm)

      Alkigirl – I don’t recall seeing a photo like that in what I have but will look again …

  • evergreen May 20, 2013 (12:37 am)

    And one woman started this all less than a year ago! She is to be applauded, as is our community. I love West Seattle!

  • alkigirl May 20, 2013 (7:04 am)

    WSB,

    Please do look again! I had rounded up as many kids as i could find that were dressed in bee costumes, because Daniel really wanted a shot with all of them standing with him, and the bees. Maybe it was someone one else from the WSB I had spoken with. Thanks for covering this, though!

    • WSB May 20, 2013 (8:52 am)

      Will be adding more photos within a couple hours.

  • alkigirl May 20, 2013 (7:13 am)

    Evergreen,

    Yes, Lauren did a fantastic job, with the help from many amazing volunteers and of course, Shipwreck Honey, who built and delivered the hives. The Bee Park would just be a park without the hives! Thanks Daniel! And lets not forget Terry from WSE who did the beautiful mosaics!

  • Yardvark May 20, 2013 (8:48 am)

    Congratulations! Such a cool addition to the neighborhood! I’d imagine that a huge amount of work went into this. Thank you to all the various people, businesses, and organizations that help make projects like these possible.

  • A. Ybarra May 20, 2013 (9:55 am)

    So glad that the students at Middle College High School @ the High Point Center had the opportunity to contribute to this important project!

  • Diane Stuart May 20, 2013 (10:45 am)

    Wow! What a well-attended event! I am particularly beaming with admiration over that beautiful mosaic created by West Seattle Elementary students under the guidance of our wonderful school nurse (and mosaic artist) Terri Helm-Remund!

  • alkigirl May 20, 2013 (6:54 pm)

    I can’t wait for more photo’s, WSB!!

    • WSB May 20, 2013 (6:58 pm)

      Sorry, believe it or not, it’s kind of nonstop here, from lost dogs to news tips. Have saved them to the desktop, just have to process them into the story.

  • Gurdarshan Tur May 20, 2013 (9:56 pm)

    Congratulations Lauren,
    Although we were not present in the USA, we would get weekly updates on the ceaseless efforts that were being made by the organizers, weather notwithstanding! Having viewed the video and the photographs indicated that the organizers were well rewarded. Well Done Organizers—- Turs

  • Becky May 21, 2013 (11:18 am)

    This is fantastic. Hadn’t heard anything about this but now excited to go and take a look. Another example of the wonderful community we have in West Seattle.

  • Joan Davis May 21, 2013 (4:11 pm)

    I’m involved with the fledging Freeway Estates Community Orchard, west of I-5 between 60th and 63rd along 6th Ave. http://freewayestates.org/ I was stunned by the community support you had!

    How long ago did you begin to gather this support? Who was the brain child of the project? It was amazing!

    Joan Davis
    joandavis3@gmail.com

  • Becca Hall May 21, 2013 (6:16 pm)

    This makes me so happy!

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