Hives For Lives: The Sweet Side Of Giving
By Jenn Breckenridge
Filed Under Conscious Commerce, Modern Philanthropy |
According to the American Cancer Society, one out of two men and one out of three women will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lives. These are chilling statistics which have personally touched the lives of almost every person’s family in the US. Carly and Molly Houlahan were 9 and 11 years old when their grandfather died of esophageal cancer. He was their best friend. Devastated by their loss, they wondered how they could help keep other families from dealing with the horrors of cancer.
Molly and Carly had another set of grandparents in Virginia who were beekeepers, whose bees made so much honey, they didn’t know what to do with it. Well, now Molly and Carly did. They decided to go into business selling the honey and donating the proceeds to cancer research and prevention. This was the beginning of Hives For Lives.
What started as a simple task of selling honey to friends and family quickly became a huge undertaking for the girls. In their first year, they were able to donate $2000 to the American Cancer Society. Other kids, dubbed “Helper Bees,” joined Hives For Lives to execute the bottling, marketing, accounting, and selling for the company.
Today, Hives For Lives honey is sold in Whole Foods locations all over the country. Following their own motto, “Local Honey, Local Money,” the two source local honey from the region where it will be sold and match cancer organizations in that area to benefit from the proceeds. One hundred percent of profits go to benefit cancer research, and after four years in operation, Hives For Lives has donated a total of $125,000 to finding a cure.
Molly, now 16, runs a Young Women’s Business Club at her school, which teaches the ins and outs of both entrepreneurship and beekeeping. The co-CEO’s have won many awards for their philanthropic pursuits, including the President’s Volunteer Service Award and the TA Barron Prize for Young Heroes. Molly and Carly have appeared extensively in the news and have traveled to speaking engagements around the country, including the LOHAS Forum, Green Festival, and Whole Foods Vision Day. “Kids get bad press,” says Carly. “Adults think that kids are just obsessed with video games, Facebook, and their iPod,” adds her sister. These two are undoubtedly turning that stereotype around.
At the end of the summer, the Houlahan sisters and 50 young volunteers harvest, spin, filter, bottle, and label their precious commodity by hand. As beekeepers, Molly and Carly have become hyper-aware of the recent plight of bees, referred to as “Colony Collapse Disorder.” Bees are disappearing at an alarming rate-about 40% of the bee population has died in the last 24 months. The cause of “Colony Collapse Disorder” is still unknown, though a variety of sources are sited, from the proliferation of cellphone towers and pesticides to global warming, viruses, and genetically modified crops. Hives For Lives will soon be splitting the cancer research donations with contributions to organizations fighting hive collapse.
Molly and Carly Houlahan have bravely devoted themselves to two mysterious epidemics that are effecting both their immediate community and the world at large. Undaunted by the size of the issues they are facing, unwavering in their hope for a resolution, and ambitious in the scope and scalability of their business, these sisters have created a wildly successful “for-benefit” business. Activists and leaders of conscious commerce take note-as it turns out, you do catch more flies with honey.
Would you like to contribute to Molly and Carly’s mission? Take action!
- Buy some honey or donate at HivesForLives.com
- Help revitalize the ailing bee population by setting up your own hive
- If you’re a kid, become a Helper Bee with Hives For Lives
Posted on June 23, 2008 |
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Now this gives me hope for the next generation!