The People Behind the Hive: North Carolina Leaders Making a National Impact

How mentorship, service, and local leadership are helping Hives for Heroes grow one relationship at a time.

Most of the time the best measure of an organization’s impact is not what happens at headquarters. It is what happens hundreds of miles away, when good people decide to show up for one another.

That is why seeing members of the Hives for Heroes community featured on pages 17–18 of the Fall 2026 issue of Bee Buzz means so much to us. Readers can view the original Fall 2026 issue here: Read the Fall 2026 Bee Buzz

Bee Buzz is published by the North Carolina State Beekeepers Association, an organization representing more than 4,000 members and one of the largest and most active state beekeeping associations in the country. Its focus on education, communication, cooperation, and strengthening the beekeeping community creates a natural alignment with what Hives for Heroes is working to accomplish across America.

Behind both organizations are people.

People willing to answer a phone call. People willing to open their apiary to a new beekeeper. People willing to put an extra bee suit in the truck, spend another Saturday in the bee yard, answer another question, or introduce a Veteran or First Responder to a community they may not have known existed.

That is where this mission truly lives.

Hives for Heroes began with a simple idea: connect our nation’s Heroes with experienced beekeepers and allow relationships to grow around a shared purpose. Beekeeping creates the introduction, but people create the impact.

Across North Carolina, Hives for Heroes members, mentors, and leaders are doing exactly that. They are sharing knowledge, building relationships, and creating opportunities for Veterans and First Responders to become part of something bigger. Around them are local beekeeping associations, experienced mentors, volunteers, families, and fellow Heroes who continue passing that service forward.

That is what makes a feature like this important. It is not simply recognition for Hives for Heroes as an organization. It is recognition for the people, like Matt Booth, doing the work.

The North Carolina State Beekeepers Association describes cooperation among beekeepers, education, communication, and maintaining helpful relationships throughout the beekeeping community as core parts of its mission. Those values matter because some of the strongest communities are built when organizations stop asking what they can accomplish alone and start asking what they can accomplish together. Learn more about the NCSBA and its mission

A local bee club brings knowledge and community. An experienced beekeeper brings years, sometimes decades, of lessons learned. A Veteran or First Responder brings leadership, discipline, resilience, and a lifetime of service. A state association provides education, relationships, and infrastructure. Hives for Heroes helps create connections between them.

When those pieces come together, one hive can become something much larger. It can become a classroom, a friendship, a mentorship, a new skill, a reason to get outside, an opportunity to lead, and for many people, a place where they know they belong.

Eventually, the person who once needed a mentor can become the person standing beside the next NewBEE.

That is how mentorship becomes leadership, and that is how a local relationship becomes part of a national movement.

National impact can sound complicated, but at Hives for Heroes it often begins very simply: one Hero, one mentor, one introduction, and one afternoon standing beside an open hive.

The relationship may begin with a question about a queen, a frame of brood, a swarm, or how much smoke to use. Over time, the conversations change. People get to know one another. Trust develops. Knowledge is shared. Confidence grows. The NewBEE begins making decisions independently, and eventually that person realizes they now have something valuable to teach the person coming behind them.

That cycle is what makes mentorship so powerful.

It is also why we never want to lose sight of how much of Hives for Heroes is powered by generosity that never appears on a financial statement. There are hours spent in bee yards, phone calls after work, miles driven, equipment shared, colonies split, questions answered, introductions made, and lessons learned the hard way that are then freely passed to someone just getting started.

That contribution is extraordinary.

We cannot adequately thank the mentors, leaders, beekeeping associations, volunteers, families, and supporters who make those moments possible. Your time matters. Your experience matters. Your leadership matters. Collectively, those contributions are making an impact far beyond any individual apiary.

There are many ways to support that work, and not all of them involve money.

Sometimes support means becoming a mentor. Sometimes it means introducing a Veteran or First Responder to Hives for Heroes. Sometimes it means sharing a story like this so the right person sees it. Sometimes it means inviting Hives for Heroes into a local bee club, association, company, or community. Sometimes it is simply encouraging someone who has decided to take the first step.

For those who are in a position to support the mission financially, those gifts help strengthen the infrastructure behind the relationships. Hives for Heroes directs support toward Hero programming, education, scholarships, mentorship, technology, and opportunities that help keep Heroes connected to resources and to one another. There is no expectation that everyone contribute in the same way—the strength of this community comes from people bringing whatever they are able to bring.

For anyone interested in learning about those opportunities, Hives for Heroes outlines several ways to support the mission here.

Purchasing Heroes Honey provides another tangible way to participate in the mission. A recurring contribution can help create consistency. A scholarship can help a committed beekeeper continue developing their skills. A business or community partnership can create opportunities that reach an entire region. And an experienced beekeeper giving a few hours of their time can create a relationship whose impact is impossible to measure in dollars.

Every form of support has value.

If you are reading this story, mentoring someone, teaching someone, sharing knowledge, opening your apiary, making an introduction, purchasing honey, donating, or simply encouraging the people doing the work, you are already part of the larger story.

And we are grateful for it.

What is happening in North Carolina is also happening in communities across America. The states are different. The bee yards are different. The people are different. But the principles remain remarkably consistent: connection, service, mentorship, purpose, and leadership.

The strength of Hives for Heroes has never been one building, one program, or one individual. It is the relationships being built throughout the country. Hives for Heroes has now served more than 10,000 Heroes and operates across all 50 states, but that national footprint is ultimately built one human connection at a time.

That is why seeing our people featured in Bee Buzz matters.

It gives the wider beekeeping community a glimpse at something our members see every day: there are extraordinary people quietly doing extraordinary work.

They may never ask for recognition. They may never fully know how far their impact travels. But every hour they give, every lesson they share, and every person they encourage strengthens the hive.

To the North Carolina State Beekeepers Association and the team behind Bee Buzz, thank you for creating space to tell the stories of the people strengthening the beekeeping community.

And to every Hives for Heroes member, mentor, leader, volunteer, beekeeper, Veteran, First Responder, family member, and supporter across North Carolina: thank you for your time, your leadership, your knowledge, and your continued service.

Thank you for showing what this mission looks like when it leaves the organization and becomes personal.

One Hero. One mentor. One relationship. One hive at a time.

That is how local connections become a national movement.

People first. Bees always.

To learn more, join the community, become a mentor, or help carry the mission forward, visit Hives for Heroes.